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Hello,
I run Win 10 Pro machines both at work (on a Domain) and Home (standalone machines - both situations have the same problem. All machines are 2004 with the latest patches.
Until recently I could bitlocker Encrypt external USB Drives (memory sticks etc) by either the "Turn on Bitlocker" option in the Explorer Context Menu or within Bitlocker in the Control panel.
This option has vanished (since the last windows updates?).
If I insert an unencrypted USB Drive there is no way to encrypt it but if I insert a previously encrypted drive then the "Manage Bitlocker" option is present in the context menu.
Does anyone know how to get back the facility to encrypt such drives?
Thanks,
Julian
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Windows pcs get the USB software/hardware by installing the pc chipset driver/software,this also runs networking/video-audio/etc,get the update thru the pc mfg or the pc hardware mfg (Intel-AMD-etc).Also,Bitlocker settings can be had by open cmd,in cmd type: services.msc
in msc,scroll to a service,double click,set to auto start or manual start up,exit msc when thru.Also,in run or cmd type: diskmgmt.msc in msc L.click on a device,go up to Actions/all/make active.This lets all/any storage device to work with the OS.Also,with all/most current OS,a disk mgmt software is usually pre installed,Intel runs Intel Storage Mgr,or Intel storage matrix,go to intel.com for a update,but 1st run the chipset software/driver...
Hi, @Julian Floyd
Was the issue resolved?
If any reply is useful for you, please accept it as answer.
If you have any issue or concern, please reply to us directly.
Best Regards.
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This issue is not resolved for any of us. Please escalate this to the correct Microsoft team. It's not just this users' computer. I've tried it on five separate PCs with various build versions (1909, 2004) and all experience the same issue.
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Same here (with latest Builds) Fix this ASAP pls
Meanwhile set Partition inactive (with Diskpart)
Bitlocker will only work on NTFS partitions so external drives must be formatted for NTFS. If you have formatted your drive to NTFS and this is still happening, go to drive management, delete the partition and recreate it as NTFS. Then remove and plug the USB device back in to restore the option to enable Bitlocker.
File systems that utilize MBR will no longer work with Bitlocker. NTFS does not use MBR (Modern systems utilize UEFI for NTFS) where as Fat32 (Which most sticks are defaulted to at the factory) utilize MBR. To properly remove the MBR partition (which won't appear in disk management), deleting the partition will automatically remove the MBR from the device. The default windows format option does NOT do this as it doesn't delete partitions, it merely formats them thus often preserving the MBR even if it's not being used.
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Thanks you so much!! I had a PNY SSD formatted NTFS and Bitlocker would not recognize it. The "tech help" at PNY was absolutely no help at all. Useless. He essentially said it was the fault of Microsoft and was no help. So I gave up until I read your suggestion. I deleted the partition and recreated it and Bitlocker now recognizes it. Thanks again!!!
You are quite welcome :)
I know a lot of people aren't super helpful when it comes to this stuff. Fortunately some of us IT professionals still roam the interwebs aiming to help people whenever possible.
Thank you so much! You're a life saver. :)
Note that BitLocker is not available on Win7 Pro (only Enterprise).
I spent way too much time searching for an answer only to realise I don't have the right Windows 7 version 🤪
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thank you so much MikaMisaki for information....
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I don't know if anyone is still having problems with this, but I was finally able to get it to work for our org.
Edit these 2 values in regedit:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\FVE
RDVAllowBDE to 1
RDVConfigureBDE to 1
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I had exactly the same issue where "Turn on Bitlocker" was not available in File Explorer and neither in Control Panel. The user requirements were to encrypt with FAT32 as encrypting with NTFS wouldn't work on few older Windows computers. For some reason, it didn't work formatting even from Disk Management window.
I used DISKPART to format the usb with FAT32 and after that the "Turn on Bitlocker" option was available from within File Explorer. If anyone interested, use the following commands from command prompt or powershell:
Step 1: Run CMD “As Administrator”
Step 2: Type DISKPART
Step 3: LIST DISK
Step 4: SELECT DISK n; where n is USB drive
Step 5: CLEAN
Step 6: CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
Step 7: FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK
Step 8: ACTIVE
Step 9: ASSIGN
Step 10: EXIT
Same issue on both Windows 10 1909 and 2004. No longer an option to right click and "turn on bitlocker" in the Windows Explorer context menu.
This needs to be escalated to Microsoft Engineers immediately.
Thanks for confirming this issue - cant find much on the web.
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Hello,
Did you get any feedback from MS, are they going to fix it with the next CU?
Cheers
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Thanks JulianFloyd but I did that and only made my USB unrecognizable now. I'm obviously not as tech savvy as most. Frustrating....
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In Windows 10 the issue is being caused by an update from Microsoft:
Issue is being caused by a windows update
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4577668/windows-10-update-kb4577668
We have uninstalled the update and escalated to Microsoft support
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Did you receive an answer from MS?
As you also stated. This is an issue with this:
Because there is an active partition we are not allowed to enable bitlocker. And as our users are not local administrators they are not able to resolve this themselves.
Any updates on this issue. We are experiencing this as well?
It would seem that this is the update that does it:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4577069/windows-10-update-kb4577069
So removing the active setting on the partition works. But that's not a solution as non admin users dont have access to that.
It would seem that all our new Kingston USB Sticks have an active partition from the factory.
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Hi Thomas
We escalated this issue back in november and Microsoft recently responded by stating the following:
Windows Engineering has decided to revert this change after finding out that several manufacturers are shipping USB Sticks with partitions marked as Active.
We should see a fix in the coming weeks.
Hi McK-4268,
Thank you for the update. We will be looking forward to this.
I'm guessing there are not an ETA on this?
/Thomas
Hi Thomas
Nope, unfortunately no ETA.
McK
This really is frustrating, having looked all over the web I still cant find a proper explanation from Microsoft about why this has happened and when they will fix it! Is there anyone from Microsoft here who can help?