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_verandaguyyesterday at 5:02 PM2 repliesview on HN

This was actually a problem for me on my current gaming PC build!

I had switched to a new AM4 mobo a few years back and decided to spring for a pluggable TPM chip (since the CPU I have doesn't come with TPM onboard). Plugged it in, set everything up pretty seamlessly in windows, no fuss, no muss, boot drive's encrypted transparently. The lack of a password was a bit jarring at first, but it's a gaming PC, so if things go pear-shaped it's not the end of the world.

Fast forward six months and my PC suddently refuses to boot; turns out the pluggable TPM thing was defective and stopped working (without any warning that got surfaced to me).

It was just my boot drive, and reinstalling windows isn't a huge hassle, but it definitely cemented my mixed feelings about passwordless FDE. Had that been the drive I use for my photo library, or my software projects, or work-related documents (tax slips, employment contracts, whatever), that would've been devastating.

It's actually made me rethink the strategy I use for my laptop's backups, and I think I'm in a better place about that now.


Replies

foepysyesterday at 5:28 PM

Don't all AM4 CPUs feature fTPM which is a firmware-based TPM? Bitlocker at least accepts this as secure enough to boot Windows 11.

show 1 reply
sedatkyesterday at 7:39 PM

You can add alternative Bitlocker decryption mechanisms including a strong password using manage-bde CLI tool. Also, Bitlocker gives you the opportunity to save your recovery data externally in case you lose all your authentication mechanisms. I'm surprised that you lost your data.