How do I get Bitlocker to work

Question

I am running Windows 7 Ultiamte 64 Bit on a Dell E521. I have a 1 TB harddrive that is partitioned. Partition 1 is 831 GB (c) and partition 2 is 99.9 GB with 90.4 free (d). When I right click on C and choose "turn on Bitlocker" I get a message that says "A compatible Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Security Device must be present on this computer, but a TPM was not found. Please contact your system administrator to enable BiLocker."

But, if I right click on my D drive and choose turn on bitlocker, I get a screen that appears to let me enable BiLocker. It is not the main drive therefore I don't want BitLocker on that drive. What am I missing or doing wrong that the sytem will not let me turn BiLocker on my main drive, but it will let me turn it on the 2nd partitioned drive?

beamermt25 · Answer

I'm not 100 percent with bitlocker, however from what I can tell, the TPM modual is a chip that allows for the encryption and security of the drive itself.  If you wish to make the active/primary partition secured with bitlocker, you need to have that chip installed or the computer would not be able to read the encrypted data.  Because you have the 2nd partition that is not a primary/bootable drive, you dont need to have the TPM modual as the system would be able to boot up and decrypt it like any other software.  Again i'm not 100 percent but from what I can gather, that seems to be whats going on.

TheRealFireblad · Answer

Take a look  here and here, to see if either can help you determine what needs doing?

Productivity Software

How do I get Bitlocker to work

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