Windows 7 - what's the diff between Bitlocker and the encryption

i use encryption.

what's the diff between Bitlocker and the encryption in windows XP?

xp encryption seems to work fine for me.

Windows 7 has disk imaging software and file backup software in most of the versions, both able to be scheduled. Additionally, there is also an included utility to create a restore CD.

Yes, yes, all of these can be had by excellent third party apps but it is enlightening to see MS finally come around and include more required OS-type utilities with the OS itself.

edit: Woah, my response here was to a completely different post, one questioning the need to upgrade from XP to Windows 7. Either the mods or the OP significantly changed the original post. Normally I am not that obtuse when replying.

Encrypted File System (EFS) is used for encrypting individual files or folders. It is still there in Windows 7.

Bitlocker is used to encrypt entire hard disks, requiring physical hardware (either TPM or USB key) to decrypt or boot the system.

Bitlocker to Go provides this whole-drive encryption for removeable storage devices (flash drives, external hard drives, etc)

Bitlocker is done to an entire drive, and the drive then requires at least a password to access in the future (usually once per restart). I believe it actually doesn't require physical hardware like TPM or USB key unless you're encrypting your OS drive. You could readily use it without those to encrypt a non-OS volume.

Bitlocker would mainly be useful in business environments where laptops (and things like USB key drives) are more readily lost or stolen, and you want an entire computer's (or USB key drive's) contents to remain secured.

It doesn't function on the level of individual files or folders.

Im fairly certain you still need a flash drive or TPM chip unless you are using Bitlocker to Go on an external disk.

just to clear it up for you, a TPM is a Trusted Platform Module. When you use bitlocker, it stores the keys that are required to access the hard drive in the TPM. If the hard drive is taken out of the computer, it won't work because the TPM is not there.
Bitlocker is used as a complement to login passwords and EFS (encrypting file system).
Take this scenario: you have a logon to your computer, but not bitlocker. Someone boots up the computer, but can't get through the logon. No problem, they take the drive out of the computer and put it in another as a second drive- bingo, data is there.
With bitlocker turned on, when the drive is removed from the computer it is completely encrypted and cannot be accessed.
The bitlocker in windows 7 ultimate uses either a TPM or a USB (which needs to be plugged in on boot to access the keys) to encrypt drives. Windows 7 makes it alot easier to set up, its mainly automatic. Vista required manual partitioning to set up properly.

I've been thinking lately about taking some steps to improve the security of my data and was thinking of using Bitlocker. But after reading this thread I have a question about this.

Suppose I used Bitlocker and TPM to encrypt my laptop's hard drive. And I back up that drive by cloning it. Then suppose my laptop is stolen. All I have left of my data is my cloned hard drive. Is this cloned hard drive now useless and inaccessible to me because I no longer have the laptop with the TPM in my possession?

Is there still a way I could encrypt my drive with Bitlocker and still have my clones be accessible in the event the laptop was lost or stolen?

I guess Bitlocker kind of scares me because I'm afraid I'll somehow screw up and lose access to my data.

there is an emergency key that bitlocker can use, which is made when you first set it up. I haven't played that much with it, but I think you can use this key to unlock the clones.
from BitLocker Drive Encryption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The "Transparent operation mode" and "User authentication mode" of BitLocker use the TPM hardware to detect if there are unauthorized changes to the pre-boot environment, including the BIOS and MBR.[18] If any unauthorized changes are detected, BitLocker requests a recovery key on a USB device, or a recovery password entered by hand. Either of these cryptographic secrets are used to decrypt the Volume Master Key (VMK) and allow the bootup process to continue.[18]

so if you cloned the whole drive and put the clone in a new machine, it would detect that changes have been made and request the emergency key.

If you read that wikipedia article, the part about setting it up with the 1.5gb separate volume and the 'preparation tool' are included in the automatic setup of windows 7 (i think)

it is a bit scary lol