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We are using HP laptops, and on them there is a software suite called HP Protect Tools. Part of this package of tools is "drive encryption." Since we are dealing with confidential information we enable drive encryption. It takes about two hours to encrypt the drive and then it requires you to enter a password upon booting up to get past the drive encryption. Then the bootup process continues to Windows.

Our issue is that once we encrypt the drive, if we ever go back and try to re-image the laptop, it appears to image fine, but when reboot we immediately error out and cannot boot up. We then have to rebuild from scratch.

I have tried to uncheck the drive encryption enabled box, but there is no results from that. Sure, the check box is unchecked, but that's it. I don't think it actually un-encrypts the drive.

We have tried to boot to a Windows XP DVD and start the install to get to the point of deleting the partition and creating a new one. However, that doesn't work either. We are out of thoughts at this point. We want to be able to re-image the laptops when needed.

Any guidance?

Jim B
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jherlitz
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  • Our image is pre-encrypt. and we have gone in and disabled drive encryption before imaging. However when we disable it, it only takes a sec when we hit apply. That is why we feel the drive is still technically encrypted. – jherlitz May 13 '09 at 15:57

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Although I can't explain it exactly, it makes sense to me that drive imaging and encryption don't play well together. I am looking forward to reading the thoughts of those who know more about this stuff!

My suggestion is to create the image before encrypting the drive. When you need to re-image, turn off encryption, re-image, and turn on encryption. I realize it adds a couple of hours to the re-build process, but it also creates a "cleanly" encrypted drive.

tomjedrz
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  • I can add that I've done the same thing as Tomjedrz when using TrueCrypt in its whole disk encryption mode. – Knox May 13 '09 at 15:21