Forum Discussion

nuance3's avatar
nuance3
Level 4
11 years ago

Restoring SSR Image to a Hardware Encrypted BitLocker Drive

We are deploying HP8300 computers with Samsung self-encrypting Solid State Drives, using Windows 8.1.  BitLocker in Windows 8.1 encrypts the drive using the intrinsic hardware encryption of the drive.  The key is stored in the TPM chip in the computer.

Symantec System Recovery can create images of the C: drive, but testing the restore fails.  An error comes up stating that the drive is BitLocked and to unlock the drive using the control panel first.

But this won't work in the case of a system failure-- I wouldn't be able to get to the control panel, the computer would be dead.

Has anyone successfully found a way around this?

I'm guessing I would have to wipe the drive using the Samsung DOS-based erase, reload Windows 8.1, don't bit lock the drive, then write over it.

 

 

 

  • Thanks for the link.

    Deleting the journal (first tip in the document) did not work, it produced the same error.

    I didn't pursue the link out to Microsoft documentation.  That's too involved.  I'm going to wait for Symantec to sort this out.

    Because Win 8.1 installs (especially to SSDs) are very fast-- I find the following works.

    Install Win8.1 to a fresh disk-- let Windows create the 3 partitions (UEFI, recovery, OS)

    Then use Symantec restore disk to recover the OS partition only.