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Unable to open backup file on encrypted drive, (BitLocker) Windows 10 Pro

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As the subject says, I cannot use a BitLocker drive for a backup device.  I have tried two different drives, one external and one internal.  The drives are unlocked when I try to use them, but TrueImage cannot determine this, and fails.  Any suggestions?

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A few others have reported this was earlier versions of 2017 when the bitlockered drive was not the main drive, but another internal or external.  Is this the main OS drive or another one?

Regardless, I would open a support case and have Acronis look into it directly - if it's a bug, they'll need to help troubleshoot on your system to identify the behavior so it can be resolved or they may be able to provide a work-a-round or fix in your case.  Either way, open a ticket for this one via chat.

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/contact-us.html

Good deal.  I'd still open a support case as well and reference that you submitted feedback and a system report already with them.  The feedback goes to developers, the support case will help get someone looking into it in the meantime.  

You didn't mention if the problem is the local OS drive or a different drive that is also bitlockered?

Bobbo_3C0X1 wrote:

Good deal.  I'd still open a support case as well and reference that you submitted feedback and a system report already with them.  The feedback goes to developers, the support case will help get someone looking into it in the meantime.  

You didn't mention if the problem is the local OS drive or a different drive that is also bitlockered?

I opened a support case and attached the system report to it.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

The drive I use to backup onto is a Seagate Slim Backup Plus 2TB USB3.  This was the first occurance of the BitLocker issue.  The OS drive is something I do not mess with!  It's a WD Blue 1TB.  All I did was to split it into two 500GB partitions after the Windows 10 install.

Norman, please let us know the outcome of your support case in this matter.

Is your Seagate Slim Backup plus external drive unlocked and fully accessible with File Explorer without having to take any extra steps to unlock the drive in BitLocker?

Normally, Acronis True Image would not know that BitLocker is activated on a Windows system because the encryption is unlocked by the time that Acronis starts looking at the disk drive data for read or write access, hence my question is looking at the timing of when the Seagate drive is being unlocked?

If the Seagate drive is not unlocked at the same time that your Windows 10 OS boots to the desktop, then this may be a part of the issue here.  You could try unlocking the drive then shutting down and restarting all the Acronis Services & Processes to see if this makes a difference?

See my signature for the MVP User Tools folder on Google Drive which has a number of small batch program files that can make stopping / starting the Acronis Services very easy.

Is your Seagate Slim Backup plus external drive unlocked and fully accessible with File Explorer without having to take any extra steps to unlock the drive in BitLocker?

I believe you are asking if I have the drive set to "auto-unlock" when connected. The answer is no.  I manually unlock the drive with the password.  A File Explorer window opens the instant I plug it in, and says the drive is not accessable. A message appears in the Action Center asking what I want to do.  It is then that I unlock the drive.  Following this is when Acronis gives me the message that it cannot write to the drive.  I do not load Acronis until after I unlock the drive.

 

Norman, thanks for confirming how your external drive is unlocked after Windows has started - I suspect that that is key to how Acronis sees the drive and believes that it is still encrypted and thus not available for use as a backup drive because that is how it initially presents itself to Windows when plugged in.

If you could try one of the script programs that I referenced in my previous post from the MVP Tools folder on Google Drive and use this to Stop all Acronis Services after you have unlocked the external drive, then Start them again to see if that makes a difference to whether Acronis sees the drive as encrypted or not?

As a precaution, I have decrypted all my drives. However, this is a situation that the programmers and engineers need to look at for a future update/patch.

I believe the fix/solution is to suspend bitlocker protection on the external drive... might be worth a shot...

56619: Acronis True Image: Compatibility with BitLocker

Acronis True Image is compatible with BitLocker hence can back up and restore partitions encrypted by BitLocker.

Install Acronis True Image on your computer and configure a backup task to back up encrypted disks. You need to unlock the disk (use Suspend protection option for that) before backing up. You cannot back up encrypted disks in Acronis bootable media.

To restore encrypted disks, start your computer with Acronis bootable media and configure a recovery task. You need to reactivate encryption after recovery. You cannot restore encrypted disks using Acronis True Image in Windows.