Bitlocker Encryption times

Question

My company works exclusively on Dell ruggedized 7220 tablets. During our reimaging, enabling bitlocker encryption is a one of the steps we do towards the end. These run i7-8665, 16GB RAM, 2GB SSD. The image is about 30 GB, installed. During the encryption process, most of these systems will complete almost immediately after starting. On the rare occasion, a system will take upwards of 15 minutes to complete.

2 questions Im looking for answers to:

1. When does the actual encryption take place, during the actual status window or during restart
2. What could be causing systems to stall at the ~96% mark for 15 minutes then suddenly complete, while 90% of the other systems are an almost instantaneous complete?

Answer 1

Hello there,

After the operating system has loaded, BitLocker will complete the encryption. If the computer is turned off or goes into hibernation, the BitLocker encryption and decryption process will resume where it stopped the next time Windows.

Typically, there's a small performance overhead, often in single-digit percentages, which is relative to the throughput of the storage operations on which it needs to operate.

Although BitLocker encryption occurs in the background while a user continues to work with the system remaining usable, encryption times vary depending on the type of drive that is being encrypted, the size of the drive, and the speed of the drive. If encrypting large drives, encryption may want to be scheduled during times when the drive isn't being used.

Hope this resolves your Query !!

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