Hard to Explain in one sentence (Sorry)

So this one is kinda hard to explain, but i try my best. Now, to start off, i wanted to install Windows 8 on a PC that had Windows 7 on it, so far so good. But then came the problem: HP likes to encrypt drives without one knowing it, and then as i deleted (i had Linux installed on another partition before) the Linux partition, Grub stopped to work, but that is usually easy to fix, its just to rebuild the MBR with a Windows install CD right? Nope, unfortunatly, as i am unable to boot into either Linux or Windows, i cannot decrypt the drive, i got the password for the WinMagic tool that launches at bootup to decrypt the drive, however the problem here is, is that i cant find any boot cd like an ISO file wich i can burn onto a CD or USB, wich i can use to boot up a tool that lets me decrypt my drive if i have the password, like a decryption disk that you make with TrueCrypt, only that WinMagic doesnt ask you to make that, as it doesnt even ask you to encrypt the drive or not, it just does. So however, now i need to decrypt the drive first, so i can install any kind of system on it, as Linux doesnt exist anymore, and Windows cant boot as the grub recovery mode doesnt seem to understand "chainloader +1", so i cant boot Windows either.

Thats why this is hard to understand, and its very very tricky, unless WinMagic or someone else has made an external tool to decrypt the HDD with the provided password, i wont be able to recover the HDD at all.

Thanks for the help you hopefully can provide me. Regards -Yannic Schwarz

Hi

The procedure to decrypt a "Winmagic Securedoc" encrypted disk seems to be a very difficult job as per this guide - Data Recovery and Drive Decryption - Enterprise Whole Disk Encryption. Honestly it didn't make any sense to me .

Do you need to save any important data ?. If not, wiping the disk and installing 8 will be the best course of action to do in personal opinion.


Edit:

It might be the "HP Protect Tools" which came with certain HP machines activated Winmagic encryption on your disk.

http://h20331.www2.hp.com/hpsub/cach...urity/ka011106

Have you tried contacting HP support ?.

Actually its ok we just switched the SSD out with a new one, kinda sad that HP Protect Tools encrypts the SSD without knowing, but not much to do with that. Also as a note, wiping wasnt an option here, as any attempt to modify the drive from the outside failed, as it sat the drive into readonly mode, and was impossible to change to readwrite. Anyway thanks for the help.