Bitlocker is slow

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  1. oldspook
    Posts : 45
    Windows 7 Ultimate
       New #1

    Bitlocker is slow


    I watched the videos on the Microsoft site about bitlocker. They said it would take "a few minutes". I started bitlocker on a 1TB USB drive 3 hours ago and it is only 18% finished. Microsoft's idea of a few minutes is a lot different than mine.

    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Oldspook
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  3. tw33k
    Posts : 3,028
    Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) SP1
       New #2

    oldspook said:
    I watched the videos on the Microsoft site about bitlocker. They said it would take "a few minutes". I started bitlocker on a 1TB USB drive 3 hours ago and it is only 18% finished. Microsoft's idea of a few minutes is a lot different than mine.

    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Oldspook
    That's very strange as I used it not that long ago on a drive and it was very quick
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  4. logicearth
    Posts : 5,642
    Windows 10 Pro (x64)
       New #3

    Are you actually encrypting an entire 1 TB drive? Bitlocker encrypts every single bit...1 TB has A LOT of bits... (I'm not using technical correct language, BTW!) It is not called full disk encryption for nothing.

    Encryption in general have never been all that fast...
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  6. oldspook
    Posts : 45
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    logicearth said:
    Are you actually encrypting an entire 1 TB drive? Bitlocker encrypts every single bit...1 TB has A LOT of bits... (I'm not using technical correct language, BTW!) It is not called full disk encryption for nothing.

    Encryption in general have never been all that fast...
    Window7 Ultimate bitlocker only does whole drives. The whole drive is being encrypted. It has been going for 4 hours now and is 20% finished, at this rate it will be done at noon tomorrow.

    I am afraid to stop it until it finishes, I might loose the data on the drive.
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  7. logicearth
    Posts : 5,642
    Windows 10 Pro (x64)
       New #5

    Actually Bitlocker does partitions. It has to do partitions because it must leave a section unencrypted for boot files.
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  8. oldspook
    Posts : 45
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #6

    logicearth said:
    Actually Bitlocker does partitions. It has to do partitions because it must leave a section unencrypted for boot files.
    Your right, all my drives only have one partition.
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  10. pparks1
    Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       New #7

    I seem to recall Microsoft stating that encrypting would take approx 10 minutes for every 1GB of data. If this is true, 1,000GB's would take about 7 days.
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  11. oldspook
    Posts : 45
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    pparks1 said:
    I seem to recall Microsoft stating that encrypting would take approx 10 minutes for every 1GB of data. If this is true, 1,000GB's would take about 7 days.
    Where did Microsoft say that? I wish I had heard it before I started the encryption. The 1T drive was 80% full of data. May it is slower because it is an external USB2 drive.

    Watch the videos, the Microsoft gal said: "it would take a few minutes to encrypt the dirve". Stupid broad....
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  12. logicearth
    Posts : 5,642
    Windows 10 Pro (x64)
       New #9

    I don't think they were expecting anyone to encrypt a 1 TB drive with 80% of data on it while connected to a slower bus....I believe you are what they call an edge case.

    An edge case is a problem or situation that occurs only at an extreme (maximum or minimum) operating parameter.
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  13. n0th1n9
    Posts : 116
    Vista HP, Vista Ultimate, XP Pro, Seven Ultimate x2
       New #10

    It is also much slower to encrypt a drive while loaded with data.
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