BitLocker is preventing writing to SD card unless encrypted

Kim 0 Reputation points
2024-05-29T14:27:52.2633333+00:00

I have 3 SD cards that I use for my music player (for simplicity's sake, we'll call them A, B and C). Cards A and B are the main cards I use while C is an older, smaller capacity card I upgraded from and am not using.

Recently, BitLocker has been forcing itself on my system, where I had to encrypt all my drives (except boot) before I could make any changes to them (it didn't even give me a prompt so I didn't know it was even installed). This extends to cards A and B, where I received a prompt that the disk was read-only until it was encrypted (same went for my supplementary storage drives).

So I encrypted them, only to realise that Windows machines are the only machines that are able to decrypt them. Which explains why my music player that runs its own OS isn't able to even unlock it to read the SD cards.

I understand the need for privacy and data protection, but why force data encryption on drives without the option to deny them. I could encrypt the SD cards but that would mean any music player, camera, camcorder, video recorder, audio recorder can't use them. But if I don't encrypt them, I can't write and edit the files when using Windows.

Just as an aside, I did test card C, and BitLocker for some reason didn't throw a fuss about encryption before writing.

And to reiterate, I do get the option to disable BitLocker but am unable to write to them.

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other
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  1. Anonymous
    2024-05-31T02:37:13.9933333+00:00

    Hello,

    Run the Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)

    • Navigate to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\BitLocker Drive Encryption\Removable Data Drives
    • Ensure that "Deny write access to removable drives not protected by BitLocker" is set to "Not Configured" or "Disabled".

    For more information (and registry update method) see the article

    Deny Write Access to Removable Drives not Protected by BitLocker | Tutorials (tenforums.com)

    Turn off BitLocker to use SD card.

    How To Encrypt SD Cards Using BitLocker In Windows 10 (intowindows.com)

     Best Regards,

    Hania Lian

    ============================================

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