Thanks, both of your points are good. I was thinking about it in terms of what OP is trying to do. Having key on the same drive. Putting the key on a separate drive or even the cloud like someone else suggested makes sense. I have all of my computers on manual. Since I don’t have anything critical enough that it can’t wait till I’m back home to start it back up.

Thanks, I was thinking about it as if the key was stored on the same drive. Like OP is trying to do. Which I don’t think would help in the case of it being stolen. Or any case I can think of. But I see how A cloud key would make a lot of sense. And would be a good compromise on security vs convenience.

This isn’t helpful. But genuine question. What is the point of encryption that auto unencrypts? When would it ever actually be securing the data?