Procedure for creating secure zone on bitlocker encrypted disk
I have ATI Home 2019 on my computers. I have had some difficulty creating a secure zone on my new Windows 10 computer. What I gather is that I have to turn off bitlocker encryption and then create the secure zone. I have 2 questions: Do I have to decrypt the drive, create the secure zone, and then re-encrypt it? When I reactivate bitlocker on the original partition, will the encryption affect the secure one or just the root partition containing data, etc.?


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Steve Smith wrote:Ira, if you are using BitLocker on your drive(s) then I would personally recommend not using the Acronis Secure Zone and use a separate NTFS partition that you can also encrypt with BitLocker, which would be more secure than using ASZ and also be able to store larger size backup image files. ASZ is a modified FAT32 partition with a limit of max 4GB file sizes.
One word of warning. To be able to recover your backups from a Bitlocker encrypted drive you will need to unlock the drive first, and if using the Acronis Rescue Media, then you would need to create this using the MVP Custom PE builder tool (link below) and use the option to include Bitlocker support in that media.
See KB 62662: Acronis True Image and BitLocker FAQ for more information.
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Thank you, Steve, for the advice, which is illuminating and helpful. I did read the FAQ when I generated the post, and decided that BitLocker for my data drive (the OS is on a BitLocker protected primary disk) was a bit of overkill from a security standpoint. Between the internet security package I use and the protections built into ATI, I feel safe. Consequently, I didn't re-enable BitLocker. My primary reason for wanting an ATZ is having a location for Try and Decide. All of my backups go on a USB data drive that I only use for backups and I am able to copy them onto optical media for secure storage. I only connect the USB drive to my computer during a backup or restore. So I think I'm OK. Thanks again.
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Ira, please see forum topic: Secure Zone cannot Be selected as a Storage for Virtual Changes in Try&Decide - given your comment above about why you wanted to use ASZ for TnD...
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