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Bitlocker - "Turn on Bitlocker" vanished for USB Drives

Julian Floyd 96 Reputation points
2020-10-29T20:32:05.163+00:00

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

Windows 10
Windows 10
A Microsoft operating system that runs on personal computers and tablets.
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Windows 10 Security
Windows 10 Security
Windows 10: A Microsoft operating system that runs on personal computers and tablets.Security: The precautions taken to guard against crime, attack, sabotage, espionage, or another threat.
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  1. Björn Bragée 1 Reputation point
    2021-02-26T16:33:22.343+00:00

    Thanks a lot for potentially good advices. Anyhow they did not work for me, so i Tried Veracrypt but backed off. Think that the problem was the USB stick, and changed it to an old not active (and certainly not bit locked before); and like a miracle Bitlocking worked fine.

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  2. M m 1 Reputation point
    2021-02-28T21:26:44.8+00:00

    Five months latter Microsoft dont solve it? Any update?
    Regards.

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  3. Mika Misaki 31 Reputation points
    2021-03-05T19:02:11.563+00:00

    Bitlocker will only work on NTFS partitions (or any format that doesn't use MBR) 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 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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  4. Julian Floyd 96 Reputation points
    2021-03-05T19:33:39.49+00:00

    The problem here is that this only works with admin rights, due to security restrictions at work (sensible restrictions for any business) users do not have these rights hence the useful bitlocker facility has gone, we also have the requirement that all usb memory sticks are encrypted - this is not progress at all! We need the ability for a standard users to be able to bitlocker memory sticks without having to come to me (as admin) to do this for them - as we used to be able to do. Why change something that worked well?

  5. Partik Pooni 1 Reputation point
    2021-03-25T05:59:11.04+00:00

    Have you guys tried plugging into a USB 2.0 port on your computer ?That worked for me.

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