Windows 7: Bitlocker is slow

oldspook · 24 Oct 2009

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

tw33k · 24 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by oldspook

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

logicearth · 24 Oct 2009

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...

oldspook · 24 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by logicearth

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.

logicearth · 24 Oct 2009

Actually Bitlocker does partitions. It has to do partitions because it must leave a section unencrypted for boot files.

oldspook · 24 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by logicearth

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.

pparks1 · 25 Oct 2009

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.

oldspook · 25 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by pparks1

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....

logicearth · 25 Oct 2009

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.

n0th1n9 · 27 Oct 2009

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

Windows 7: Bitlocker is slow

Bitlocker is slow problems?