How to encrypt my system partition?

Question

I want to encrypt my main hard drive (where I have my OS, programs, etc.) and I have looked for tutorials online but each one seems to follow different steps, some say that I need another partition to put the recovery file (main, system reserved and other one) and others say that I have to modify something in the registry.

I have used bitlocker before for two external drives but I know that for a system drive is different, what are the steps that I have to follow to encrypt my hard drive?

More (probably relevant) info: I do have the 'System Reserved' partition that some tutorials mention is necessary to encrypt my main hard drive and the HDD has 465GB (434GB free).

Answer 1

This Bitlocker guide handles how to encrypt your system pratition and how to solve TPM problems.

An alternative solution can be seen in this Truecrypt guide.

Answer 2

do you have a TPM chip? WIthout it, encrypting the OS is cumbersome.

if you got the TPM,

1) turn it on in the BIOS
2) Go to BITLOCKER from the CONTROL PANEL
3) Select TPM administration
4) Set the password
5) reboot
6) back to BITLOCKER - select TURN ON BITLOCKER for your C:\ drive

at this point Windows will check to make sure you have the proper hardware (TPM) and that it is turned on and configured. Then you will be prompted to put in a flash drive and save a txt version of the Cypher which you will be prompted to create. from there, the encryption process will begin and require a reboot. You will need the flash drive anytime you want to boot, or you will be required to enter a 25 digit recovery key consisiting of small, upper, numeric, alphanumberic, special characters.