Windows 10: ciphered files in win10 after formatting a disk

I had some folders under cipher from windows bitlocker and I planned to format the unit that contained them, so I placed them on an external disk, hoping that after formatting the disk I could keep using the files. I didn't know that I needed to decipher them before, and I think I didn't even recall that they were ciphered when passing them to the ext. disk, so after formatting I tried to pass them to the desk, and I couldn't. I tried opening them, and I couldn't either.So I began to search for a way to fix this, and all I found is very disapointing, and really upsetting to be honest.I fou

:)

 

Cipher vs Format on non-system disks

No question, just raising a subject to see whether I am right or wrong...


cipher /W:X
versus
format X: /fs:NTFS /p:2

cipher takes quite a long time, even for a small disk.
(as a test: cipher took about 40 minutes for a 5GB HDD-partition)

for non-system disks (like backups) :
temporarily copy all folders and files to another drive
run above Format-cmd (admin)
and restore the folders and files

will probably a much faster way.
drawback: one may not have sufficient free space to move/copy hundreds of GB (or even a few TBs)...

 

How To Format A Write Protected Flash Memory ?

¿You already tried this one?...

Run CMD


1. diskpart
2. list disk

Then in the 3º step, put the correct number of disk in the list for the usb flash (if it's listed in disk 3, then you'll have to write select disk 3).

2. select disk #
3. clean
4. create partition primary
5. select partition 1
6. active
7. format fs=fat32
8. assign
9. exit

with that commands you will format the flash drive in fat32, if you have a large drive you can select also "format fs=ntfs" in step 7.

good luck!

 

Using Cipher to Erase Disk Unused or Free Space

Using Cipher to Erase Disk Unused or Free Space

Lol I remember cipher from Win XP days. Today I was really surprised that Microsoft still includes cipher even in Windows 10. Pretty good utility if you want to scrub your disks clean.