Bitlocker considerations

[P19]

I have 64-bit Windows 10 Pro as the primary OS on a laptop, on which I also make use of both Hyper-v and Virtualbox VMs. For backups and occassionally restores I use IFL, which I boot into normally from a small USB flash drive. Attached to this laptop is a large USB device, to which I make the IFL backups or restores after booting with IFL. When I boot to IFL GUI, this device appears already mounted, and it is simply a matter of pointing the backup to it at the beginning of the process before I configure the settings.

Currently, this USB device is not encrypted, although I make my backup as an encrypted file. I am not considering encrypting the entire Windows drive on this device using Bitlocker. How would this encryption play out in regard to my backup and restore routines with IFL? Thanks.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

If you encrypt the USB drive with BitLocker you won't be able to access the data on it from IFL. You would need to use TBWinRE/PE to be able to unlock it.

[P19]

So i would either have to create an unencrypted drive on this disk or start using the TBWinRE/PE procedure. Is that correct? Where is the link to the instructions for the latter procedure?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

Correct. If encrypted with BitLocker you would need to use TBWinRE/PE to access it, which just requires running "manage-bde" with the password or key to unlock the partition. Then it would be available decrypted and you would read from it or write to it normally via the drive letter assigned to it.

For example, if using a password and E: is assigned to the BitLocker partition, you would run "manage-bde -unlock E: -pw" and then enter the password when prompted. You can run "manage-bde -?" for details on options it supports (manage-bde is available in Windows also).

[TeraByte Support]

dislocker is on the new IFL disk, but doesn't yet have documentation.


"TeraByte Support (PP)" wrote in message news:11196@public.image...

If you encrypt the USB drive with BitLocker you won't be able to access the
data on it from IFL. You would need to use TBWinRE/PE to be able to unlock
it.

[P19]

> "you would run "manage-bde -unlock E: -pw"

Paul,

Do you mean that this command should be entered at a command prompt after booting into the IFL GUI, by opening a terminal window? Thanks.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

The manage-bde program is run from the Command Prompt of Windows or WinPE (TBWinRE/TBWinPE), not IFL.