Windows 10: Bitlocker Encryption - Surface Laptop: Using 100% Disk Utilization During Encryption

Good Evening,


We're testing Bitlocker in our environment and are running workstations with Windows 10 Pro build 1803. On one test computer, a Surface laptop we're having an issue when starting encryption. Disk utilization jumps up to 100% while encrypting and the system is very slow. It stops this behavior immediately after the encryption processes stop.


We are encrypting XTS-AES 128 bit full disk with backup of the key to AD.

Microsoft Corporation Surface Laptop
S/N 010174171957
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300U CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.70GHz, 512KB Level 2 cache
136.1932.789 MSFT - 0
8,192 MB RAM
THNSN0128GTYA TOSHIBA 119.24GB SCSI




Does anyone have any thoughts as to the cause? Thanks!

:)

 

Bitlocker Encryption

I'm not entirely sure if Bitlocker is encrypting my data.

I freshly installed windows 10 pro, encrypted the hard-drive using the "used space only" method, its brought up a percentage bar then after it was done I started to download a lot of things like up to 70gb worth or stuff on my computer. After I complete
downloading all the files, I check Bitlocker to see if it has encrypted the data with the "manage-bde -status" command and it was already at 100%. I'm not sure if it already encrypted the data, if it pending to be encrypted or if I need to decrypt then re-encrypt
the harddisk .

Can someone please give me information on how it works

 

Device Encryption not avaiable

Hello Fraczek,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

We understand your concern in this regard.

• Are you referring to BitLocker Drive Encryption?
• What preventing you from doing this?
• Did you get any error message or code while doing this?

Before you come up with the above information, suggest you to refer the article

Help protect your files using BitLocker Drive Encryption and see if it help you.

Do refer the article
Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption Step-by-Step Guide and check if it help you with the required information.

Keep us posted if you require further assistance.

 

BitLocker not encrypting?

We have several HP ElitePad 1000 G2 tablets running Windows 10 Pro that we want to set up encryption on.

The order of events that we are doing to accomplish encryption are:

1. Turn on Bitlocker from Control Panel > System and Security

2. Select "Save to a file" when asked how I wanted to back up the recovery key

3. Select "Encrypt entire drive" and "New encryption mode"

At this point, some of the tablets would spend hours apparently encrypting the SSD. Some of the tablets said the encryption was done after a few moments.

4. Add a startup PIN

5. Restart the tablet to make sure the PIN was prompted for (it was)

6. Check the encrypted status of the tablet by entering "manage-bde -status c:" at a Command Prompt. All tablets reported back someting like:

Volume C: [Windows]

[OS Volume]

Size: 103.67 GB

BitLocker Version: 2.0

Conversion Status: Fully Encrypted

Percentage Encrypted: 100.0%

Encryption Method: XTS-AES 128

Protection Status: Protection On

Lock Status: Unlocked

Identification Field: Unknown

Key Protectors:

TPM And PIN

Numerical Password

7. Check whether BitLocker was actually encrypting files on the C: drive

a. Create a new text file on the C: drive

b. Copy the file to a USB flash drive (or email it as an attachment)

c. Download the file on another system

Upon opening the file on the other system, I found that it was not encrypted and everything was visible in clear text.

There seems to be something fundamental that I am missing or misunderstanding about just what BitLocker is supposed to be doing.

This link (Enabling File Encryption) indicates that encryption is available only on NTFS (which the tablet is formatted as), and that if you copy the file to a floppy disk or to any other file system, the file is no longer encrypted.
I'm assuming this is old information (the "floppy disk" part kind of dates it) not relevant to BitLocker.