Windows 7: Bitlocker Drive Encryption using USB

Hi,

I have been having some issues when trying to turn Bitlocker on in C:

I have followed the instructions as per this forum to enable a Startup key in gpedit.msc as I dont have TPM which worked.

After following the instructions, Windows Bitlocker asked me to insert a USB to save the startup key to. This appeared to save and then moved onto the next step where I took down the recovery key etc... and finally restarted to make sure my system was compatible before encryption started.

Upon restart, Windows said that it couldnt find a key on the USB drive. After further investigation I found that windows did not save the key to the USB after all even checked as a hidden file. It will save the text file (recovery key) to usb but not the bek file for the startup key.

I have tried this several times but each time it wont save although the system dosent say there has been a problem and moves on to the next stage.

The USB is a 2gb cruzer with the smart drive software removed and re-formatted to NTFS. I have also tried this on other USB drives with no luck and the USB drives work as Iam able to write other things to it?

Any help would be greatly appriciated as I have searched this forum and MS forums with no luck.

Thanks
Marc

Same problem here. Different USB drives or different usb ports didn't change anything.

Any ideas?

I am not familiar with using bitlocker myself yet , but I did read in a post that in order to use it on drive C: you need to have the 100mb partition as setup by a windows 7 installation , you can check this by right clicking my computer / manage and select "disk management" ?

maybe this post by brink might help

I have the partition. Windows 7 creates it itself. It's just seems like it can't access the files on the USB drives, which is weird.

Hi,

Thankyou for your response, Sorry I forgot to mention earlier that I had already checked this as Windows 7 did this for me automatically during the Bitlocker setup process. Bitlocker set up a 300MB NTFS Partition which is currently active.

Thanks Again
Marc

Oh, by the way, I have the .bek file on my drives but it still doesn't work ...

Hi Cooper, If you have the file on your USB drive but it still doesnt work it could mean that your BIOS isnt able to read from USB at boot up I have read that somewhere else. The annoying this is I cannot even get the bek file. Is yours hidden or not?

Yep it's hidden. And I'm able to boot from USB, tried that too...

*bump* Still no idea anyone?

The only other thing I can think of is your timing. Did you plug the USB thumb drive in before turning on the computer? you have to do it before turning the computer on, not after the bios start screen.