BitLocker question

[win7freak000]

Hope I am in the correct forum area here.

I need some info here about BitLocker encryption.

I just have a cleanly fresh installation of Win7.
Does it matter whether data is added before or after the internal drive is encrypted with Bitlocker?

So lets say that my drive is not yet encrypted with Bitlocker and then I restore all my data onto that drive.
So after my data has been restored and then I enable Bitlocker, will that data still be encrypted?
Or, should Bitlocker be enabled BEFORE restoring data onto that drive to avoid data leakage?

My internal drive is not an SSD drive.

 

[Alejandro85]

For most practical purposes, it doesn't matters.
Consider that Bitlocker is full disk encryption, so everything on the drive will be encrypted. "After" or "Before" will affect the initial encryption time to a degree, but otherwise it's the same.

One aspect where it might matter is that an unecrypted copy lying on the disk before encryption is run for the first time might be available for recovery though forensic software. In the same way that deleted files aren't deleted at all, activating Bitlocker might do the same with unencrypted data. Chances of recovery I think are small enough for it to be negligible in most cases (it depends on who might attack you), but be aware that it can be technically possible.

Just for that, and to minimize encryption time the first time, I would copy them after the disk is encrypted.

 

[win7freak000]

Thanks