Bitlocker Decryption stuck at 92% remaining

jagooch · 11 Jul 2010

Before I moved overseas, I encrypted a 1.5TB SATA drive in my Window 7 Ultimate 32bit system using bitlocker and an unlock key( passphrase as none of my computers have a security chip ) . I did this in case my luggage got lost or somehow the drive left my possession during my trip, the data would not be accessible.

After I arrived overseas, I used it briefly with a USB to SATA dock designed to let you pop a hard drive in and use it as an external drive. This worked, but it was slow, so I decided to decrypt the drive. The encryption was a 12 hours process with my original system ( Intel Dual Core E7000, I think ) , but I only brought my EEEPC 1000HD with me as carry on luggage, so I expected a 48hr decryption process. I started decryption using the control panel bitlocker applet, but the cleaning lady ( I was in a hotel ) knocked out the power cord and I had to start it all over. Then I needed to take my netbook someplace so I paused the decryption and I gave up on decrypting for a while.

Now when I connect the drive and look at it in explorer, it doesn't have the bitlocker padlock icon next to it. It looks just like a regular drive. I type "manage-bde -status" at the command line , and it says "Decryption in Process" and "92% remaining". It just sits at 8% completed, and hasn't budged for 14 hours.

To recap:
Encrypted using passphrase on Windows 7 ultimate 32bit, using SATA interface

Started decryption on Windows 7 ultimate 32bit on Netbook using SATA-USB dock plugged into my USB port

Power chord unplug interrupted decryption

Resumed decryption, but power failure interrupted it again

Drive missing bitlocker padlock when attached via USB dock.

manage-bde -status command output shows "Decryption in Progress" and "92% remaining"

I can access the encrypted drives files, albeit the reads are really slow so videos/music is useless.

What should I do? let it go another 14 hours? buy another drive and copy the data over? something else? Its really frustrating since Windows is not giving me any useful feelback.

Johnathan Lyman · 13 Jul 2010

If the power was cut to the drive or the decryption was otherwise improperly terminated, you could be SOL.

Try running "chkdsk /r" on that drive to see if there are any bad sectors that need to be fixed. It's a long shot, though.

It sounds like decryption stopped at 8% when she unplugged it.

If you have the option, try re-encrypting it if at all possible. Since the padlock is gone, you should have the option to do so.

windowsapple · 15 Jul 2010

My Bit locker gets stuck at 93% also. I just canceled it.

jagooch · 07 Oct 2010

So basically I gave up on fixing it. I bought the largest Internal hard drive possible for my Netbook, filled that up along with the original Notebook drive, got a warranty replacement of the external drive, and then moved files to that drive. I was hoping the replacement drive would be higher capacity, but they gave me one with the exact same capacity. Anyway, I'm happy. With the outcome, I do wish I had given up earlier in the game.