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    No TPM???

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by The Sand, Feb 19, 2011.

  1. The Sand

    The Sand Notebook Consultant

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    I was finally all ready to go... got my system just the way I wanted it before I enabled Bitlocker (running image backups after enabling Bitlocker is considerably more time consuming than before.)

    But it appears I have no TPM. Is this really true??? I can't believe with a computer like this, hardware like this, it was left out...

    Sandy
     
    The Sand, Feb 19, 2011
    #1
  2. The Sand

    The Sand Notebook Consultant

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    I thought Bitlocker would be fun to try. I have read the pros/cons of Bitlocker. It might not have gone well for me anyway as I prefer my boot order to be CD-ROM first in case of disasters - so I can boot a WinPE. Which goes against everything Bitlocker stands for. That boot order I believe would cause issues.

    But I was curious about it... I can still try it, you can use Bitlocker without TPM, you just have to use a USB flashdrive to boot - which would be kind of a pain.

    I believe Dell probably reads these forums, so I wanted to post that I think we the users should have been given a choice here. TPM should have been included in such a high end system as this.

    Sandy
     
    The Sand, Feb 20, 2011
    #2
  3. oneabove

    oneabove Notebook Consultant

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    they usually dont include tpm in non business class laptops... my Vaio Z used to have it...
     
    oneabove, Feb 20, 2011
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  4. crazycanuk

    crazycanuk Notebook Virtuoso

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    TPM's are pretty rare outside a business class laptop and even then you sometimes need to pay attention.
     
    crazycanuk, Feb 20, 2011
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  5. The Sand

    The Sand Notebook Consultant

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    I would have selected Alienware even without it. But it's a nice thing to have, even if you don't want to run Bitlocker. I hope they include it in the future... with a price tag like mine - there should be nothing it doesn't have ;) .

    Sandy
     
    The Sand, Feb 20, 2011
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  6. beelsr

    beelsr Notebook Consultant

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    i ran into the same thing.

    hint: TrueCrypt works just fine without a tpm...
     
    beelsr, Feb 21, 2011
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  7. The Sand

    The Sand Notebook Consultant

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    Apparently BitLocker will work without it, you just have to use a USB key - it also won't perform the "integrity check" upon startup like it would if you had a TPM. If you like to use WinPE's the integrity check can fail causing you to enter in the recovery key all the time (not fun.) So the TPM might have caused me "issues" anyway. (none the less, a TPM would have been nice to have ;) )

    Thanks for your input on TrueCrypt... I have heard good things about it. If my BitLocker trial doesn't go as planned - I will check out TrueCypt.

    Sandy
     
    The Sand, Feb 21, 2011
    #7