password protecting hard drives on windows 7

[nh2123]

Hi, I am trying to password protect a secondary hard disk on my desktop computer. This disk only has media and documents on it. It doesn't have any programs or any windows components installed on it. I tried using the bitlocker app. included with windows 7 ultimate but I couldn't figure out how to get it working. Could someone help me out with this issue. Thanks.

 

[seavixen32]

I think you'll find that Bitlocker needs an external hard drive to set it up correctly.

You could try zipping the drive with 7Zip then give it a password.

How to encrypt ZIP files securely using 7Zip

 

[nh2123]

ok, how do i undo the encryption that i did on the main folder of the drive with bit locker?

 

[seavixen32]

Oh dear, I didn't realise you'd already encrypted the drive or made an attempt to encrypt it.

This tutorial explains how turn Bitlocker on or off.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...cryption-windows-7-drive-turn-off-no-tpm.html

Further information here.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732774.aspx

 

[nh2123]

well it turns out bitlocker was off. i tried to enable it and got an error saying the disk had errors and to run chkdsk, which i did. chkdsk ran after comp was restarted and it ran prior to windows booting up. all tests completed and i didn't see any dialog mentioning any type of error. i decided to try the decryption process with bitlocker but it only got to 97 and change % at which time it got the same error. now bitlocker says an error has occured and it cannot complete the decryption process. someone please help.

 

[Corazon]

That sounds like you ran chkdsk on the wrong drive, namely the one containing your Windows system ( C: ). (No harm in doing that, though.)

You shouldn't have to reboot just to run chkdsk on your secondary harddisk, unless it's locked because (for example) your pagefile is located on that disk.

What exactly did the error message say?

 

[nh2123]

bitlocker message says that the disk has one or more errors and to run "chkdsk /r". It says if these errors persist this may be indicative of a hardware fault. any ideas.

 

[seavixen32]

bitlocker message says that the disk has one or more errors and to run "chkdsk /r". It says if these errors persist this may be indicative of a hardware fault. any ideas.

That suggests to me that the drive has a problem of some sort such as sectors gone bad.

Which drive are we talking about and did you run chkdsk /r as prompted?

 

[nh2123]

bitlocker message says that the disk has one or more errors and to run "chkdsk /r". It says if these errors persist this may be indicative of a hardware fault. any ideas.

That suggests to me that the drive has a problem of some sort such as sectors gone bad.

Which drive are we talking about and did you run chkdsk /r as prompted?

Drive is a sata drive that has nothing to do with windows booting (it's not a primary drive nor does it have any programs saved to it). It is being used for documents and media files. One thing of note may be that this drive once had windows installed on it. The way I converted it to a media drive was to put it in a different computer and delete all the system folders and files and just keep the folders that had the media that I wanted. When I run the chkdsk /r from cmd it tells me computer must be restarted to complete the process. When I restart chkdsk runs and tests seem to go smoothly. I saw no mention of errors, bad sectors, etc. I ran error check also (which I think is the same thing as chkdsk, though not sure) by right clicking the drive and going to the tools tab. When trying this error check seems to get stuck at around 16% and will not go any farther. One last piece of info is that the disk bar is red and I think that means it is low on space. It has 14.1 gb free from 149 gb. Not sure if this would cause problems. Please let me know if any of this helps. Again thanks for your time and troubleshooting.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

One thing of note may be that this drive once had windows installed on it. The way I converted it to a media drive was to put it in a different computer and delete all the system folders and files and just keep the folders that had the media that I wanted.

That was probably your first mistake--simply deleting folders rather than reformatting it.

Most likely, there are Windows components left behind on the drive.

 

[nh2123]

ok... I moved the files to another location and formatted the drive and tried to encrypt with bitlocker but it still gives me an error.

 

[nh2123]

I moved the contents of the drive to another drive and then formatted the problem drive. I then tried encrypting with bitlocker and got the same error message. I formatted again and ran error checking and ticked off attempt recovery of bad sectors and let that run to completion. Error checking said that there was bad sectors found and some of them were repaired. I tried encrypting with bitlocker again but still the same error. I guess problems with this drive are preventing it from being encrypted. Anyone else ever have this happen?

 

[richnrockville]

Looks like you might be better off to get a new hard disk instead of having the bad sectors repaired. It would be a shame to have all of your data corrupted because of a bad sector where the bitlocker encrypted it.
A lot less aggrivation.

Rich

 

[seavixen32]

I agree with rich. A new hard drive will save you a lot of grief.