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I am currently running Windows 7 RC x64 on my home system, and am interested in encrypting my hard drive. I've heard good things about TrueCrypt, but am curious what other folks might suggest. I primarily use my system for software development, so am concerned about any system performance degradation that encryption might introduce.

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4 Answers

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TrueCrypt is the de facto standard.

Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

The following features are planned to be implemented in future versions:

Full support for Windows 7

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I installed TrueCrypt 7.0. Works great with no issues. Incidentally, the new version now supports hardware-accelerated AES. I see no performance issues or system degradation whatsoever. – David Frautnick Jul 29 '10 at 14:52
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As you mentioned, there's TrueCrypt.

There's also PGP Whole Disk Encryption.

If you purchase Windows 7 Ultimate, you'll also have BitLocker built in, which is one of the few compelling features of Ultimate.

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I bought the PGP disk encryption software way back in the day. They discovered a bug in the software and decided to wait until the next major version to patch it. That version was not available as a free upgrade. This was quite some time ago, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. – ChrisInEdmonton Jul 17 '09 at 17:42
up vote 2 down vote

Windows 7 has full disk encryption built in with Bitlocker. You will have it available in the RC but come RTM it will only be available in the Enterpise and Ultimate editions.

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Is the source code available for BitLocker? I believe it isn't (it is for TrueCrypt.org though), and from a security perspective this eliminates BitLocker as a possible option because I can't review the source code. (For encryption and security software, open source is extremely important because anyone can review the code.) – Randolf Richardson Sep 17 '11 at 16:02
up vote 0 down vote

I use Dekart private disk. It ships with AES 256-bit encryption and can be used from a memory stick.

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