Bitlocker Stuck Decrypting

rinconmike · 23 Jan 2022

Hi.
I have a dell precision 7760 laptop I and getting ready to replace the SSD that had bitlocker enabled. It is a 2TB drive and windows notes 1.86TB of space and 1.16TB free. I decided to decrypt the bit locker so I can do a backup with Acronis rescue media. I did make a backup while in windows so I have that. It has been going for around 1 hours and 40 minutes and has been on 77.7% for the last 20 minutes or so and not moving. I plan on letting it sit but concerned it is stuck. I searched for solutions but other than waiting I am not sure what else to do.

any thoughts or ideas?

James · 23 Jan 2022

Hello @rinconmike.

Since this issue could have multiple fixes, instead of overwhelming you with putting them all in one post at once, I'll ask you if each one works for you and if not, we'll try another until we find a fix. (Hopefully this first post works though!)

You can PAUSE and then RESUME the process. In many scenarios this will be the fix. First, click + X and in the LOWER LEFT of your screen, click RUN. Then, type 'control' and choose BITLOCKER DRIVE ENCRYPTION. On the BitLocker encrypted drive, select SUSPEND PROTECTION. Then click 'Yes' to confirm your actions. And now, click RESUME PROTECTION.

Hopefully this will get you further in your issue

-James

rinconmike · 23 Jan 2022

Thanks. On the bitlocker screen, for that drive it does not give me an option to suspend. It just says OC (C:) Bitlocker Decrypting.

Also, windows is near locked up with some windows explorer screens not responding and will not close when hitting end task in task manager.

James · 23 Jan 2022

@rinconmike

For future reference, instead of using the TASK MANAGER to restart, you can simply hold CTRL + SHIFT and right click on blank space on the Task bar, to bring up 'Exit Explorer'.

Another option is to use software.

iBoysoft BitLocker Recovery can recover data after BitLocker encryption failed, interrupted, stuck, paused and recover lost data after BitLocker decryption failed, interrupted, stuck, paused, frozen, etc. in Windows 10/8/7/XP.

From m3datarecovery

Download

Instructions

Step 1: Download, install and launch iBoysoft BitLocker Recovery on your computer.

Step 2: Select the corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive and then click Next to continue.

BitLocker data recovery software

Step 3: Enter the password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key and click Ok.

Enter the password or BitLocker recovery key to scan lost data from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive

Step 4: Scan the lost data from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive.

Scan lost data after BitLocker decryption stuck

Step 5: After your files are found, please select them and click "Recover" to start data recovery from corrupted BitLocker encrypted drive.

Recover lost data after BitLocker decryption stuck

Step 6: If some recovered files cannot be opened, check "Revert decryption" option under Help menu and recover them again.

From m3datarecovery

-James

rinconmike · 24 Jan 2022

I did not try that yet. I was able to restart. After 15 minutes of the screen stating "restarting" i forced power off. I then restarted and it booted back up. But outside of clicking on the bottom right icon to get the Decrypting to display which still shows 77.7%, I cannot do much. clicking on the windows key does nothing. I can move the mouse and that is about it. I did right click on the windows icon and a few minutes later the menu came up and then I left clicked on command prompt but nothing came up yet.

Could it be that even though it has been on 77.7% for a while the decryption processes is still running and killing all the resources?

- - - Updated - - -

I was able to suspend it with a command prompt line "manage-bde -pause C:". I had to quickly do it after a reboot. I tried resuming and after 30 min did not move from 77.7% I assume it has to do with an issue with the SSD.

With it suspended, I can access everything. At least the files I opened I had not issues with.

I do plan on using my acronis image I made yesterday before I tried decrypting. I wanted to decrypt to make an image using the acronis rescue media, but looks like I will to be doing that.

I might try resuming again out of curiosity.

thanks for the help.

- - - Updated - - -

I got it to decrypt. I already unlinked my dropbox from the computer but did not delete the files yet. So I deleted all the DB files. Once all deleted, I resumed decrypting via command line and it completed. Maybe it was stuck on one specific file? Or maybe the dropbox files that are online only caused an issue.

Note I did try to decrypt after unlinking DB and closing the DB app but that still did not work.

sygnus21 · 25 Jan 2022

rinconmike said:

I was able to suspend it with a command prompt line "manage-bde -pause C:". I had to quickly do it after a reboot. I tried resuming and after 30 min did not move from 77.7% I assume it has to do with an issue with the SSD.

As a BitLocker user myself, I can definitively say it has zero issues with SSD's. Nor has Microsoft listed any SSD drive issues.

Also be aware BitLocker decryption is not an instantaneous process and can take anywhere between 20 minutes to a few hours depending on data and size of drive.

From Dell - https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...g%20to%20sleep.
Microsoft Answers - https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...1-d0acb75ba75f

That said, drive decryption does not prevent normal use of drive.

rinconmike · 25 Jan 2022

I think it was an issue with my specific SSD and not SSDs in general. I am not sure if it is the SSD is faulty or something with the firmware update.

sygnus21 · 25 Jan 2022

rinconmike said:

I think it was an issue with my specific SSD and not SSDs in general. I am not sure if it is the SSD is faulty or something with the firmware update.

Yeah, that's a more reasonable assumption; especially if something went wrong with the firmware update. That said, typically a bad/failed firmware update will "usually" result in an inoperable device (device not working at all).

For clarity, what was to firmware update to? Did you look in Device Manager to see if there's anything there?

rinconmike · 26 Jan 2022

Fixes & Enhancements- Improved the solid state drive data management to prevent data integrity issues.

I did suspend bitlocker before I updated the firmware. The installation directions does not state to or not to. For bios updates it does state to disable bitlocker so I figured it would not hurt to do with the firmware update.

Before and after the update I checked the firmware version in device manager, select the drive, details, hardware ID. Confirmed the firmware version.

It is just odd that the Dell Diagnostic kept showing the short drive test failed until I finally got the drive to decrypt and then it passed.

Also the decryption was stuck and locking up the system until I deleted the files that were in my DB folder. I do not think this has anything to do with DB, just a specific file or files that were there.

Alternatively, there is an issue with the drive and the short drive test failure may come back. Although I have reboot and run it probably 10 times to test.

chkdsk also shows no issues.

- - - Updated - - -

I am thinking of turning bitlocker back on and then run the Dell Diagnostic Drive Test to see if the issue with the SSD come back.

I still did not reinstall and download my Dropbox files.

When turning bitlocker back on, there are two options

Encrypt used disk space only (faster and best for new PCs and drives)
Encrypt entire drive (slower but best for PCs and drives already in sue)

For the second option, I understand the entire drive will encrypt even deleted data. Does it encrypt empty areas of the drive that never contained data? The drive is a 2TB drive and I was less than 50% full before.

For this test, should I just use the first option? Or better to do the full drive to fully test the drive to see if any issues are raised?

I might decrypt again after to further see if there are issues.

- - - Updated - - -

I did a full drive encryption and no issue.