Patent ID: 8924739

Claim:
A method of performing encryption, the method comprising: receiving a request from a user to encrypt an unencrypted volume of a computing device; identifying a volume key; converting the unencrypted volume to an encryptable format to yield an encryptable volume divided into unencrypted portions, the encryptable volume further including a temporary offset space to store file system metadata and scratch data used to encrypt the unencrypted portions, the temporary offset space positioned on the encryptable volume at a location between encrypted and unencrypted portions; and encrypting, based on the volume key, each one of the unencrypted portions separately to create a corresponding encrypted portion at a location on the encryptable volume that previously held a different unencrypted portion; and shifting the temporary offset space on the encryptable volume to a new location between newly encrypted and remaining unencrypted portions after encrypting each one of the unencrypted portions, wherein the user accesses a temporary copy of the unencrypted portion stored in a working space during the encrypting of the unencrypted portion and wherein, in response to receiving a decryption request from the user, retrieving a decryption volume key associated with the encrypted volume and decrypting, based on the decryption volume key, the encrypted partition, block by block, to enable the user to use the computing device during the decrypting as if the encrypted partition was already decrypted.