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Restore FROM Bitlocker enabled External USB drive

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I have been forever backing up my (non Bitlocker) hard drive to my Bitlocker enabled external USB drive. Now's the time for a restore and after selecting the backup and commencing the restore, after reboot, I'm getting a message saying the drive containing my backup cannot be found/read. I'm guessing it's because the Acronis Restore cannot recognise the external drive because I'm not in the OS yet and it's because the OS contains the Bitlocker key?

What is the solution for this (other than disabling bitlocker on the drive in question)?

 

Thanks

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Nadim, what version of Acronis True Image do you have?

See KB 56619: Acronis True Image: compatibility with BitLocker for more information on this topic.

The MVP Custom PE Builder script tool can inject BitLocker support into custom WinPE rescue media created by ATI 2018 and above but you would still need to unlock the encryption before ATI could access the backup images stored on your drive.

You would need to create a small batch command file to do the unlock using the options needed for the manage-bde command.

rem Unlock BitLocker protected drive from WinPE
manage-bde -unlock d: -rk BitLockerRecoveryKey.txt

rem manage-bde -unlock d: -rp 646635-114961-231099-277860-386144-683056-530211-438922

Hi all,

I have a quite similar question so will ask it here :

Does the normal "rescue media" support reading a tibx file located on a Bitlocker-encrypted drive ?

From the answer above, I understand it's not the case for TI2020 and you need to build a custom rescue media (which is not user-friendly).

Is it still the case with TI2021 ?

 

Keket wrote:

Hi all,

I have a quite similar question so will ask it here :

Does the normal "rescue media" support reading a tibx file located on a Bitlocker-encrypted drive ?

From the answer above, I understand it's not the case for TI2020 and you need to build a custom rescue media (which is not user-friendly).

Is it still the case with TI2021 ?

If you create the 'Simple' version of the ATI 2021 rescue media, and do this on Windows 10 Pro which has BitLocker support, then this is included in the rescue media but there are some steps that are needed in order to access a BitLocker encrypted drive in the rescue environment.

When you boot into the rescue environment, you will see a black Command prompt window along with the main ATI 2021 application window.  You need to close the ATI 2021 window in order to have access to the command prompt in the black window.

Now, you can use the BitLocker commands to identify and unlock your encrypted drive before relaunching the ATI 2021 application again using "X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"

See the following data captured from my own system booted from the ATI 2021 Simple rescue media with an encrypted drive connected.

X:\windows\system32>wpeinit

X:\windows\system32>"X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"
Terminate batch job (Y/N)? n

X:\windows\system32>manage-bde -status

BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Disk volumes that can be protected with
BitLocker Drive Encryption:
Volume C: [Windows]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 200.83 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

Volume D: [SSD-Data]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 263.29 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

Volume L: [Label Unknown]

[Data Volume]

    Size:                 Unknown GB
    BitLocker Version:    2.0

    Conversion Status:    Unknown
    Percentage Encrypted: Unknown%
    Encryption Method:    AES 128
    Protection Status:    Unknown
    Lock Status:          Locked
    Identification Field: Unknown
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:
        Password
        Numerical Password

Volume H: [Data]
[Data Volume]

    Size:                 114.10 GB
    BitLocker Version:    None
    Conversion Status:    Fully Decrypted
    Percentage Encrypted: 0.0%
    Encryption Method:    None
    Protection Status:    Protection Off
    Lock Status:          Unlocked
    Identification Field: None
    Automatic Unlock:     Disabled
    Key Protectors:       None Found

X:\windows\system32>manage-bde -unlock L: -password
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041
Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter the password to unlock this volume:
The password successfully unlocked volume L:.

X:\windows\system32>dir L:
 Volume in drive L is Seagate250gb
 Volume Serial Number is 1052-D550

 Directory of L:\

07/11/2020  00:08    46,379,683,840 MyBackup(1).tibx
05/11/2020  00:51    45,030,981,632 MyBackup.tibx
               2 File(s) 91,410,665,472 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  158,538,076,160 bytes free

X:\windows\system32>"X:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\trueimage_starter.exe"

X:\windows\system32>

Thanks a lot for these explanations, Steve !

Indeed, the command

manage-bde -unlock B: -password

allowed me to access the Bitlocked drive, using the ATI 2020 boot media.

I would have preferred getting a popup in the ATI GUI allowing me to enter the Bitlocker password, but I can deal with it.

The day I'll need to restore using the boot media, I guess I'll need to recheck this forum to remind the command, but at least I know it's feasible   :-)