Bug - ATI 2020 rescue media can't backup an unlocked bitlocker drive (still)
Same issue as reported in 2018, 2019 and both 2020 betas, exists in the public release of ATI 2020. After creating WinRE rescue media, I can successfully unlock my bitlocker drive using manage-bde -unlock command. Once unlocked, I can navigate the entire drive, make changes to it with A43.exe file explorer and/or command line and even save logs from the ATI rescue media to the SUCCESSFULLY UNLOCKED drive. However, I can not backup this drive because ATI 2020 still says it's locked.
I feel you. Shadows projected as this was a known issue in the beta and confirmed by Ekaterina? Competitor products are much better.
On the other hand this issue is not on the known issue list even though confirmed and Bitlocker is not on the "supported" list for ATIH 2020. I really hope they can solve it and support Bitlocker.
The only thing I could think of that Bitlocker support is meant for Enterprise or SMB so they should go with Acronis Backup, however, Bitlocker is part of Win 10 Pro and so It would make more sense to limit ATIH compatibility to Win 10 Home and Pro, and leaving out S, Enterprise and Workstation SKUs.
There is no clear description in the supported / compatibility document.
If you take a notebook or tablet with you while travelling it should be encrypted or a theft maybe get hands on all your data if it is stolen. So Bitlocker is not a business thing - it's a data security thing. Microsoft should make it a part of Win 10 Home, too, because it's important for every traveller.
I agree bugfix, currently at least in EU a Win Pro license is available from unused / unsold products starting from 4 € without being pirated, just saying.
You can enter the new key anytime and upgrade to pro without even reinstalling.
I did the same license upgrade with a HP laptop of my wife where I found Bitlocker AES 256 XTS appropriate for mobile data security even though she has a mostly cloud based device protected by 2FA aswell.
As a sidenote:
Windows 10 pro as a business platform looses its point due to the many restrictions or otherwise benefits of the Enterprise SKU. So some out there already discuss if Pro is even a business SKU in future or just Enterprise.
Nevertheless Pro is the foundation SKU to any upgrade to Enterprise, this may be subscription based (Microsoft 365) or classical licenses.
Bitlocker is supposed to be supported in ATI since at least 2017
https://kb.acronis.com/content/56619
It hasn't worked correctly in any rescue media for as long as I can remember
Hello Bobbo_3C0X1,
have you tried to backup a bitlocker partition with the TI 2020 rescue media with sector-by-sector backup method also (no unlocking needed)?
This would be the backup method I prefer for encrypted partitions because you don't have to re-encrypt it after restore, which can save hours.
HI Bugfix. I have not. I don't want to backup the entire drive - technically, while it might work, it is not supported by Acronis and that will create much larger backups. The drive is "unlocked" by manage-bde -unlock command, and not actually decrypted. This is essentially what your main OS does when you boot into a bitlocker drive using TPM or after your provide a bitlocker key or password. The rescue media (WinRE) handles the ability to unlock the drive just fine and WinRE does that just fine. I can then access all contents of the drive in any file explorer, command prompt, and even see all of the contents in True Image 2020 rescue media.
The ongoing problem is that True Image Rescue media still "thinks" the drive is locked, when it is not. I've created my own custom WinRE with multiple other backup products and none of them has an issue backing up the drive once it's unlocked in the same manner, just ATI rescue media. And it's been like this since 2018 for me, and apparently since at least 2017. It's a bug that needs to be fixed. True Image is just failing to recognize the disk is unlocked for the "backup" portion of the rescue media. It has no issue allowing it to be a destination, or a place to save the log files :(
Hello Bobbo_3C0X1,
the larger backups would be no problem for me - harddisks are big enough today. And if I would do an image backup of the unlocked partition the backup would be encrypted without the need to use the True Image build in encryption (which is very slow and take additional hours).
I have tried that with TI 2017 where sector-by-sector image backup is offered, but I get the same error message as you.
Woo-hoo, it looks like this should be fixed in the next update that is scheduled sometime in September as per Ekaterina's note here:
This is great news. I already had my eye on another image backup software, but so I will wait for the update.
Nope, the update did not fix Bitlocker support in rescue media as mentioned in the post from https://forum.acronis.com/comment/511165#comment-511165 linking to here. Frustrating.
I had the same issue. No recent ATI 2020 release helped me. Completely uninstalling everything didn't help as well. The only helpful thread I found is this: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2019-forum/cant-backup-bitlocked-drives-may-2019-update#comment-536643
After returning volsnap entry I can run backups on unlocked BitLocker partitions
The last two builds of TI 2020 have had the volsnap upper filter added to the WinPE media. If you build using the Simple option so you get WinRE, it should work.
My expierence with using the Simple option aren't great, maybe because I have a multiboot Windows.Any news to the other Wizards that are using WinPE / ADK?