It appears that it does need a certain type of motherboard, BUT, if that's not 
present, it will use a USB drive in its place with the pertinent info. There is 
also an option to add a user password to the authentication cycle too.

There is provision for a master password in the event your hardware changes, 
you forget your regular one, etc. This means all this protection boils down to 
one password allowing you in again.

Virtually the SAME features are available (without the chip on the mobo) 
through Truecrypt, with the option of selecting encryption method and double or 
triple encrypting. One can keep a certificate on a key and have usb drive 
requirements just like bitlocker, as well as password. You can also save header 
info on a truecrypt volume for recovery if sectors go bad, and you can use it 
on CDs, DVDs, etc. The volume can also be mounted on Linux, and can be mounted 
over a network, allowing only encrypted data in the network packets. And it's 
open source.

You can also programmatically bring it up or down, even in batch files, in case 
there was a need to do so singly or over an entire LAN...

AND, you're sure there aren't other ways to get into your drive....



> Nate Duehr wrote:
> But the BitLocker method is different from that (and from the encrypting
> driver method you're referring to) in that the encryption isn't done by the
> processor, but by a separate hardware device. Also, BitLocker seems to be
> available now.
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist