BitLocker Taking Forever to Encrypt? Try Faster Way Here!

Why does BitLocker take so long to encrypt?

BitLocker is a popular encryption tool that comes with Windows operating system, which is designed to help protect your data by encrypting the entire hard drive or specific partitions. However, sometimes BitLocker encryption slow issue can occur and be frustrating for users.

There are several reasons why BitLocker may be taking so long to encrypt your hard drive. Some of these include: generally, the time it takes for encryption depends on the capacity of the drive being encrypted, the speed and performance of the computer, and the type of encryption algorithm used, or other programs running in the background, etc.

After understanding some possible causes, next, we’ll explore what you can do to overcome this problem, as well as provide you with a bonus tip on how to speed up the encryption process. Let’s check it together.

• Quick troubleshoot to speed up BitLocker encryption
• A faster way to encrypt files on an external hard drive
• FAQs about BitLocker encryption

Quick troubleshoot to speed up BitLocker encryption

To get rid of BitLocker encryption slow problem, there are some listed quick tips for you. You can try according to your real needs.

Way 1: Wait with patience

Wait for a long time and see if the encryption continues.

Way 2: Terminate and encrypt again

If you wait for a long time and the BitLocker encryption stuck with slow speed, you can try to terminate it and encrypt again.

Way 3: Replace a faster USB port

If BitLocker encryption slow on your PC, and if it is an external hard drive which uses USB 2.0, it would be much slower. You can Change another USB port such as 3.0 to plug the BitLocker encrypted external hard drive in. Or connect the BitLocker encrypted external hard drive to another faster operating computer.

Way 4: Improve Windows performance

Before you encrypt a hard drive on your PC, which has been in used for a long time, you can first improve the computer performance. When your PC is in an ideal condition, the speed of the BitLocker encryption can be well boosted.

A faster way to encrypt files on an external hard drive

If this issue still exists, but you still want to encrypt your important files on a hard drive, you can try the secure backup software AOEMI Backupper Professional. The encryption feature is integrated into this powerful software, so you can set the backup task as well as encryption together, without making an extra effort. When backing up the system, file, disk or partition, you can find the "Enable encryption for backups" feature under "Options", and you can set the password easily by clicking it.

In addition, this software also offers you many flexible backup features, such as daily/weekly/monthly/event triggers/USB plug in schedule backup, incremental & differential backup, automatic backup cleanup, etc. It supports all versions Windows systems such as Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista, etc. If you are a Windows Server user, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Server. 

Then you can download this powerful backup software on your PC and follow the graphic tutorial below to encrypt files on a drive. 

Step 1. Open AOMEI Backupper Professional, click Backup > File Backup.

Step 2. Click Add File or Add Folder to select the files or folders you want to backup.

Step 3. Choose a drive as your destination to store these files.

Step 4. To password protect the specific files on the drive, just click Options at the bottom, and click General > Enable encryption for backups. Then, you can type the password > confirm the password > click OK to encrypt your drive.

Step 5. Confirm all your operations and click Start Backup to password protect the files on a drive.

It is also an excellent disk cloning software, which allows you to clone BitLocker encryption disk in Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, etc. easily. And after cloning, you can boot from the cloned disk successfully.

FAQs about BitLocker encryption

Your turn

Overall, BitLocker taking forever to encrypt can be frustrating. But by understanding the causes of this issue and following the bonus tip, which is to try an easier and faster file encryption tool called AOMEI Backupper, you can speed up the encryption process and protect your data in a timely manner.

Besides, as a professional disk cloning software, it can help you clone the encrypted hard drive to a larger HDD/SSD securely, and you won’t encounter cloned drive won’t boot on Windows 11 issue.