Backup to a bitlocker encrypted device (unlocked)
Dear all,
I am currently having an issue with Acronis and Bitlocker.
What I am trying to do:
Backup selected folders from the main drive C: (bitlocker encrypted and automatically unlocked) to a SD card D: (bitlocker encrypted and automatically unlocked)
Both drives are accessible in Windows Explorer, I can also open the backup files on the SD card (backup has been working in the past)
Problem:
In the status screen it says that the scheduled backup was not performed and when I manually click the button for "backup now", Acronis does not start the backup because it thinks Bitlocker encrypted drive (SD card) has not been unlocked
Error:
"Cannot open backup on encryted drive, please unlock or turn of bitlocker encryption" or sth. similar
Did anyone of you have the same experience or may have an explanation and or fix for this?
It is driving me crazy and I don't want to decrypt/encrypt the drive everytime I want to do a simple backup task
Olivero, welcome to these User Forums.
Please take a read through forum topic: Backup to a target disk with BitLocker enabled? which may offer some suggestions on how to proceed with your request.
See also forum topic: Unable to open backup file on encrypted drive, (BitLocker) Windows 10 Pro
En réponse à Olivero, welcome to these… par truwrikodrorow…
Hello Steve,
thanks for the quick reply. I have checked your links thoroughly but I can't seem to find the solution for my problem.
The removable drive D: is encrypted with "Bitlocker to go" which I can't suspend. The only suitable option is to deactivate Bitlocker on that drive.
Also I have checked the status in command line prompt and it shows the drive as unlocked and auto-unlock activated.
I can perform a backup, if I deactivate Bitlocker completely on that drive. The deactivation takes about 1 hour and is not my preferred solution.
What is also very strange is that the backup was (mostly) working until a few weeks ago. I have the respective backup files on my removable drive and they are all accessible.
I suspect that the backup process is working normally when performed by the scheduler and the computer is turned off or in standby, but it doesn't work when I try to start it manually or when I am logged in. I have also tried the same manual process logged in as ADMIN but it didn't show any different behaviour.
Olivero, sorry for long response time - I have just setup BitLocker to go on an external USB drive which already had a backup image on it, then did a reboot to ensure that the encryption was fully active.
I was then able to run my backup task to the encrypted drive without needing to re-enter the encryption key when using the auto-unlock option in the BitLocker Control Panel settings.
My tests were done with ATI 2018 as that is what I have installed on my laptop, but a quick test within the ATI GUI would be to take the option to Open location for the backup task which should show whether ATI sees the drive as unencrypted or not?
Hi Steve,
I can access the backup files in the way you described above. So Acronis does see the drive unlocked I presume.
Furthermore I caught Acronis in the act of backup when I openend my Laptop yesterday evening. So the scheduler does work and the backup did what it was supposed to do.
On the other hand I cannot get it to start when trying to trigger it manually:
Olivero, this seems quite strange when the backup is running on schedule / running missed schedule, but trying to start it manually is giving you the error message:
The last backup was stopped. Renewed start time: at 09:37.
Can not open a backup on an encrypted volume.
Unlock the volume or turn off bitlocker encryption.
Try again after that.
Unfortunately, Acronis stopped support for ATI 2017 back in October 2017 otherwise I would advise raising this as a Support Case with them to investigate.
I can only say that I am not seeing this issue when using ATI 2018 but I cannot guarantee that this would be the same for you as there may be other variables at work here? I have tried my BitLocker to Go external drive on 2 different Windows 10 systems running ATI 2018 and all has been fine so far. I have tried with the drive connected at boot and also connecting it after the Windows desktop is shown, all without problem.
Hi Steve,
it is indeed very strange. Thanks for the help anyways. I will try fiddling with the options in Acronis and Windows. I will post an update when I have found the solution
Best regards
Olivero
Dear all,
I had the same problem as poster Olivera.
After some time consuming investigations I found a solution for my configuration to backup to an external BitLocker HDD.
Maybe my method is helpful for other users.
During initialisation of BitLocker on an external USB HDD drive it seems to be neccessary to select "Encrypt the whole HDD" instead of "Encrypt only the used part of the HDD" (sorry, I use a german Win). Even if the HDD is fresh formatted and empty.
Used config: Windows 10 Pro 1803. Acronis TI 2019. TrekStor DataStation maxi light (2TB), USB 2.0.
regards Hannes
Hannes, welcome to these User Forums and thank you for sharing your experience here.
Just to give some feedback. I'm running ATI 2019 on a Windows 10 Pro x64 (latest MS updates) system and using two rotating USB drives that have BitLocker applied to them. Every week we swap the rotating drives. Initially, every time we attached a drive we were prompted for the BitLocker PW. At some point we selected the option to remember the BitLocker PW. We are able to backup the system HD (only one drive in the laptop) which also has BitLocker on it. After backing up we are able to access the BU file on the USB drive and open it with Window File Explorer. Once opened we can drill down to any level and recover any file. At this time I have not (2018 1024) tested restoring the entire drive. This is on the to-do list and hopefully, this test will be completed sometime in Nov 2018.
I have copied a TIB file from the BitLocker drive to a USB drive that does NOT have BitLocker on it and use it normally.
Hopefully, this helps you.
Hello all,
I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that one of the posters was talking about the SOURCE disk being Bitlocker encrypted. If so, I would like to add my input. I have been having this same error message on one of my systems using Acronis TI 2019 in that I cant initiate a backup because Acronis thinks the drive is locked. It is definitely not locked and Windows 10 confirms this (also it is a fixed HDD so bitlocker automatically unlocks when the OS starts up, in order for me to actually use the OS and the drive). This only recently started happening and I tried uninstalling and reinstalling Acronis but same error. The only thing that works is if I fully decrypt the fixed SOURCE HDD and then backup, and then re-encrypt it later. However, obviously this should not be necessary (and is not necessary on any of my other computers using the same version of windows and config). Any ideas?
Thanks!
Peter Zambito
Peter, which option have you used when enabling BitLocker on your Source drive? Did you encrypt the whole drive or just the used space? If the latter, then in essence BitLocker could be actively encrypting new data when Acronis is trying to obtain a lock on the drive for the backup task.
This option is described in the Microsoft FAQ for BitLocker where it states:
How long will initial encryption take when BitLocker is turned on?
Although BitLocker encryption occurs in the background while you continue to work, and the system remains usable, encryption times vary depending on the type of drive that is being encrypted, the size of the drive, and the speed of the drive. If you are encrypting very large drives, you may want to set encryption to occur during times when you will not be using the drive.
You can also choose whether or not BitLocker should encrypt the entire drive or just the used space on the drive when you turn on BitLocker. On a new hard drive, encrypting just the used spaced can be considerably faster than encrypting the entire drive. When this encryption option is selected, BitLocker automatically encrypts data as it is saved, ensuring that no data is stored unencrypted.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I used Bitlocker to encrypt the entire drive not just the used space (so the operation went to 100% completion prior to starting any backups with Acronis). What is strange is that I have been using Acronis normally for months with this configuration and today was the first time that it didn't "see" the unlocked drive and claimed that it was locked even though windows shows it unlocked. I have also confirmed that Windows is not actively still encrypting the drive. I tried disabling bitlocker with the suspend command but this also did not allow the drive to be seen by Acronis. The only way Acronis works now is if I decrypt the entire drive and do the backup, but that is very inconvenient due to the time it takes to decrypt and then re-encrypt every time I want to do a backup.
Peter, thanks for the update - I have only used BitLocker to Go on an external drive which was the target for a backup, rather than on a Source drive, so this is not something I have tried directly.
Perhaps one of the other MVP's or users may comment on this? Otherwise, as this is happening with ATI 2019, I can only suggest raising it via a Support Case directly with Acronis and let them investigate with you. It does seem very strange that only ATI cannot determine that BitLocker is unlocked and it certainly shouldn't be necessary to decrypt the drive to perform a backup?
One late thought, if you create the MVP Custom ATIPE version of the Rescue Media on a USB stick (less than 32GB size), you can include BitLocker support in the offline WinPE media and test doing an offline backup of the encrypted disk in that way. There is information in the MVP tool folder on how to unlock the BitLocker encryption in this environment (and it does work!). Link below.
Peter, I'm just guessing but I suspect that your issue is a BitLocker issue and would suggest that you report the issue in the Microsoft forum. To be on the safe side I also suggest that you open a support issue with Acronis. It sounds like some flag has been set by BitLocker that ATI sees and is being told that the drive is locked. When you report the issue to Acronis Support I suggest that you question them about what ATI is looking for to determine if the drive is locked. Somebody in development will have to answer this question.
Having said that, I implemented ATI 2019 on my son's Windows 10 x64 Pro system. He has only one partition on his laptop and BitLocker has been applied. When ATI runs BitLocker is NOT paused and the target BU drive also has BitLocker applied thus both the source and target drives have BitLocker applied. On my test system, only the target drive has BitLocker applied and I have a "C" (boot partition) and "E" (data) partition on my system.
I just posted a PDF at https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2019-forum/acronis-b… describing my setup. I don't know if it will be helpful with your issue. I've completed a lot of testing with this setup and so far no issues similar to your issue. At this time I have completed the BU phase and now will be implementing the recovery phase. I have completed limited testing for the recovery phase but what I have completed has given me confidence that we can recover successfully.
Thank you for the excellent advice and suggestions. I agree it appears to be something going on with Windows. With further exploration I found that certain other native services in windows were not working, namely System restore, ScanDisk. The error persistently came up that the volume shadow service (VSS) was corrupted, and I think this may impact not only system restore but any backup image software, so likely it's related to that.
I am going to do a clean install of windows and try again, and I suspect at that point Acronis will return to normal function
Thanks again to you both!
Peter
Peter, you may wish to try running the Acronis VSS Doctor tool (link below) and use this to correct any issues found that it can resolve.
Thank you I will give that a try!