Windows 7 Bitlocker
Can someone fill me in on Windows 7 with bitlocker support?
From what I have read the recomendation to do a full backup using True Image is to unencrypt the drive before running the backup, or I would have to use a special boot disk to do a full block copy of the disk. Is it possible to do just specific file/folder backups without having to go though all the extra steps of decrypting the drive?

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Hello,
Colin, thank you very much for your help, you're absolutely correct.
Chris, Colin's correct. Let me shed some ore light on your concern.
Acronis True Image restores the data in the unencrypted state while the system is still aligned towards using the encryption drivers. This prevents it from detecting certain critical files properly and thus does not allow the system to log in.
In that case Creating a sector-by-sector image from Acronis Rescue Media and then restoring it will let you have a bootable system.
See Creating a Sector-By-Sector Backup with Acronis Products and Standalone Version of Acronis Software.
If you back up a non-system encrypted partition, you can then restore it successfully.
Disabling BitLocker and then backing up the system partition will also result in the successful restore and bootable Windows Vista. But backing up with disabled BitLocker will take a considerable amount of time as compared to backing up a regular non-encrypted partition.
Please reply to this thread if you have any additional questions.
Thank you.
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Thanks Colin and Ilya,
From what you are saying it does not sound like I can have a real time backup running on a bitlocker encrypted OS drive. That is pretty much the case?
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Ilya wrote:Hello,
Colin, thank you very much for your help, you're absolutely correct.
Chris, Colin's correct. Let me shed some ore light on your concern.
Acronis True Image restores the data in the unencrypted state while the system is still aligned towards using the encryption drivers. This prevents it from detecting certain critical files properly and thus does not allow the system to log in.
In that case Creating a sector-by-sector image from Acronis Rescue Media and then restoring it will let you have a bootable system.
See Creating a Sector-By-Sector Backup with Acronis Products and Standalone Version of Acronis Software.
If you back up a non-system encrypted partition, you can then restore it successfully.
Disabling BitLocker and then backing up the system partition will also result in the successful restore and bootable Windows Vista. But backing up with disabled BitLocker will take a considerable amount of time as compared to backing up a regular non-encrypted partition.
Please reply to this thread if you have any additional questions.
Thank you.
So you would need to disable BitLocker as well as unencrypt the drive before backup? What about a restore... do I also need to disable bitlocker before I throw a restored image on here?
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I found some information on encryption and Acronis off PGP's website. I am using Bitlocker but maybe the information is the same as we are talking about partition encryption...
https://pgp.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/693/~/how-to%3A-create…
Would you consider the information in the link outdated?
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I also found this...
http://kb.acronis.com/content/1734
I find the information conflicting..??.. The knowledge base link does not mention at all disabling Bitlocker and unencrypting before backing up from Windows...
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The Sand wrote:I also found this...
http://kb.acronis.com/content/1734
I find the information conflicting..??.. The knowledge base link does not mention at all disabling Bitlocker and unencrypting before backing up from Windows...
That is confusing!
Obviously that KB article suggest that from TI 2009, if an image is started from within Windows, Windows will automatically de-encrypt on the fly as the image is made, resulting in unencrypted image contents.
I've checked the 2011 manual and it makes no mention of Bitlocker anywhere (that I can find). If the KB article is correct then my statement in the above post is incorrect. However people have reported problems with 3rd party file\disk security systems which definitely do require unencrypting.
The article doesn't say whether it applies to both disk and file images or just to one of them.
All I can suggest now is try it! I would expect that imaging will take a long time due to the on-the-fly decryption, not would I be surprised if it works for files and folders but not for complete disk images.
That is about as unhelpful as I can get I'm afraid.
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No that is helpful... I am just trying to get all the info I can...
There isn't a lot available on this topic so it appears "winging it" is in order - which is pretty funny because I have Acronis so I can "wing it"- I don't normally "wing it" with Acronis ; )
Hopefully I dont't crash and burn - it certainly wouldn't be the first time.
Sandy
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Acronis please help with the following...
I got this information from here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee449438(WS.10).aspx#BKMK_Mu…
This is noteworth from the provided link...
"What system changes would cause the integrity check on my operating system drive to fail?
The following types of system changes can cause an integrity check failure and prevent the TPM from releasing the BitLocker key to decrypt the protected operating system drive:
Moving the BitLocker-protected drive into a new computer.
Installing a new motherboard with a new TPM.
Turning off, disabling, or clearing the TPM.
Changing any boot configuration settings.
Changing the BIOS, master boot record, boot sector, boot manager, option ROM, or other early boot components or boot configuration data."
From what I am reading you can't boot from the rescue media with BitLocker enabled if you are usign TPM. You can't have it read the CD/DVD drive first. Maybe if you got into trouble you could boot the recovery partition - then change your BIOS - then do a successful restore???
Can somebody from Acronis please repsond to this as in your literature you say a successful recovery is possible with the resuce media.
Thanks,
Sandy
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This link provides some info on using Acronis wth encryption tied to TPM...
http://kb.acronis.com/content/1649
The link says, "If the encryption key is based on the hard drive or some hardware serial numbers, a sector-by-sector copy may not work as expected. The best solution will then be to create the backup in Windows. Then, when restoring it, do it as you would do it normally. The only difference is that after the restore you will need to rebuild the MBR. See Restoring Windows Boot Loader Manually."
I dont' know if Acrnois really supports BitLocker based on the conflicting information I have found. Since I can't get anybody to respond I will have to go with Norton Ghost 15 who clearly states on their website they have full Windows 7 BitLocker support. Of course that is yet to be proven - but at least they have made a "statement" about it which I more than I am getting here...
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