Samsung NP350V5C - unable to get bitlocker to work

Hi, just bought the laptop in the title, upgraded to Windows 8-pro and tried to get bitlocker to work unsuccessfully.

There is no TPM chip so I followed the instructions to enable additional authentification, set a password and rebooted as required - there are clear insructions to follow in a number of places - e.g.:

BitLocker - Turn On or Off for OS Drive in Windows 8

On restart, item 16 on the instructions (BitLocker - Turn On or Off for OS Drive in Windows 8) does not happen, instead I get the error message in item 17 - "Bitlocker could not be enabled etc".

The instructions rather unhelpfully say "If the BitLocker system check failed from step 15 above, then you will see this below. Click/tap on Close. You are now finished since BitLocker was unable to encrypt the Windows 8 OS drive." Unfortunately, it doesn't explain why it has failed. Can anybody help - I've saved the recovery key to a memory stick and left that in the usb port at reboot but that made no difference.
Having an encrypted hard drive is a work requirement so I need to resolve it ... having looked at a couple of threads on this forum it looks like there are some issues going on with booting but can't see anything directly relevant to my problem.

Any help much appreciated.
Peter

 

Hello Peter, welcome to NBR.

I am afraid I don't have firsthand experience with BitLocker (my NP700Z3A doesn't have TPM either, and I haven't bothered trying with a USB); so I cannot give you very concrete advice. Hopefully others here can.

One thing that came to mind, though: Does your installation have an MSR partition? It's a small (typically 350MB) partition between the EFI/ESP partition and your Windows partition. (See this post for a list of standard partitions).

Some installations of Win8 Core/Home edition do not have an MSR partition, and since you upgraded to Win8 Pro, I figured that might be the case. At least in Win7, the MSR partition was used to hold BitLocker encryption data (in addition to the boot manager). I imagine the same would be true in Win8.

IF indeed that is the case (that your disk does NOT have an MSR partition AND that Win8 BitLocker depends on it) then that's almost certainly the reason why it isn't working. If you were to perform a new clean install of Win8 Pro on a clean disk, it almost certainly will create an MSR partition. But you would think Microsoft provides a means for users who upgrade to Win8 Pro to make use of the BitLocker feature.

If you do not get an answer here within 24 hours, I recommend you re-post the question in our Windows OS and Software forum. Or, if you want, we can move this post to that forum.

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm not an IT expert so I'll need to do a bit of digging to fully understand your post ... I thought bitlocker set up a 350mb partition as part of the installation process but possibly that's something different - it's a new 750gb disc so there's certainly plenty of room.

I did upgrade from W8 to W8pro so it's entirely possible that more needs to be configured than I know about. Encrypting W8 has caused all manner of problems for a number of my colleagues, my turn now!

Will look into it tomorrow, thanks again

 

The MSR partition (that 350MB one) is normally created when a Pro version of Windows is installed; Windows uses it as boot partition AND in case the user decides to enable BitLocker.

Are you saying you installed Win8 Pro on a new blank disk? In that case, I would expect that it created an MSR partition as part of the installation.

You can open Windows Disk Management and check if the MSR is there: Control Panel-Administrative Tools-Computer Management-Disk Management. If indeed the MSR is there, then the problem you are seeing is something else -- in which case I should go back to only giving advice on subjects that I know

 

FWIW, my X4C which came with Win 8 Pro pre-installed has a 300MB partition described as "EFI System Partition".

John

 

OK, will check after work. The disc wasn't exactly blank - I've installed MS Office but that's about it.

Also just noticed that you think this thread is better placed in a different part of the forum - fine to move it.

 

Thank you John.

That is the EFI boot partition, also called ESP (essentially the UEFI replacement for BIOS, so to speak).

Since your laptop came with Win8 Pro, I would expect another small partition named SYSTEM or MSR, placed between the ESP and the Windows partition. In Win7 it was 100 MB, but I've seen Win8 disks where it was to 350MB; also some where it was 120MB (which makes more sense).

If your laptop does NOT have this MSR partition, that would be great info, because it means for sure that Win8 Pro doesn't need MSR. In fact, it would be great info whether you have it or not

OK, with blank I meant literally nothing on it: No Windows, no data, no partitions; a brand new disk just installed (or just wiped). When Win8 Pro is installed on a blank disk, it WILL create an MSR partition.

But from what you say, I gather that wasn't the case, I just misread your previous post: You were using the original disk that came with the laptop, then upgrading to Win8 Pro, correct?

Since we've come this far here, let's finish determining whether you have an MSR or not. Depending on the outcome of that, you can post a new thread in the Windows forum -- or we can move the thread.

 

See what MiniTool Partition Wizard has to say:



I wonder what the third one on the list is - it isn't reported by Disk Management!



The empty 8GB partition was created to try (unsuccessfully) to get Intel Rapid Start to work.

We are assuming that, since the computer was supplied with Win 8 Pro then it was set up with Bitlocker in mind.

John

 

Excellent, thank you for sharing this, John.

The third partition listed by Minitool Partition Wizard is indeed the MSR partition that we were expecting. 128MB makes sense, I think that is what I have seen most lately (I wrote 120MB in my last post, but 128 is probably the target size).

You can compare your partitions to the list in this post.

The fact that your Win8 Pro comes with this partition confirms to me that Earth is still spinning at normal speed, and Win8 still creates (and needs) an MSR for BitLocker. Particularly since it's still there on a GPT disk which boots from the EFI partition (on good old MBR disks, the MSR is also the boot partition).

And yes, puzzling that it doesn't show up in Disk Management. I will have to remember that when advising members. In fact this is another reason to refer to Minitool Partition Wizard instead, because there are just too many things hidden and prevented in Disk Management now.

Thanks again for posting this.

@Peter:

Based on this, please use the free Minitool Partition Wizard to check your partitions. I still have a suspicion that an MSR partition was NOT created when you upgraded to Win8 Pro, and this could be the reason why BitLocker fails.

 

Yes, original disc with W8pro upgrade.

There's probably an easy way for me to post a screen shot but I'll worry about that another time, hopefully I'll transcribe the important information

Healthy (recovery partition); 500mb; 100% free
Healthy (EFI system partition); 300mb; 100% free
Healthy (recovery partition); 22.51gb; 100% free
Healthy (recovery partition); 1gb; 100% free
Healthy (boot, page file, crash dump, primary partition); 674.22gb; 89% free ... this volume marked as ( C: ) and NTFS (file system).

Apart from realising that my hard disc appears to be ~50gb smaller than advertised (!), I hope this covers what you need to see? MSR isn't mentioned.

If (fingers crossed) this means that there might be a root cause to my problem, I guess the next question would be how to create this MSR partition?
Thanks for your help so far

 

Thank you for the update. As I mentioned in my response just before, it appears that Disk Management hides the MSR -- at least in the upper part of the window, though I swear I've seen MSRs displayed in the lower part of the Disk Management window (see screenshot of mine below, but don't let my partition list confuse you, yours will be different for several reasons).



Again, try using Minitool Partition Wizard -- it really is very easy, and no adware included.

If it turns out there is no MSR, I'll have to dig a little to find out if there is an easy way to create one -- short of re-installing Win8 Pro.

Do you have Win8 Pro install media (did you download an ISO from Microsoft when you upgraded)?

 

OK, always read all the posts ... doh.

Hopefully I have uploaded the picture of the minitool partition wizard - it does show a similar partition

Hope is a terrible thing

 

LOL

Thank you. Indeed, your 128MB MSR is showing there just fine. I am glad we were thorough about checking this before doing anything drastic.

I am inclined to believe the MSR was there all along, even before the upgrade to Pro, and the reason why some Win8 installations appear not to have it, is merely because Disk Management hides it. I'll be paying attention to that.

Unfortunately that means I am out of bullets with regards to your issue, since I really don't know much about BitLocker and haven't used it myself. I just wasted your time look for a partition which was never the issue to begin with

I suggest you re-post your question in our Windows OS and Software forum. Moving this thread is moot now, since it just contains posts that contribute little to describing the actual problem. You can mention in the new post that you have verified that an 128MB MSR is present, and even link back to this thread if you want.

Also, if you do not get a quick resolution here, calling Microsoft support would be an option to consider. They sold you this upgrade.

I'll keep an eye on the outcome in the new thread, as there may be something for me to learn there

 

OK, thanks - I have sent a mail to Samsung - no reply yet and posted the question on the Windows 8 forum (no replies at all ... though based on your suggestion, will check it's in the right part of the forum). Will contact MS as well, good idea.

Thanks for all your help

 

No problem. I saw your new thread in the Windows forum and will be watching that. Keeping my fingers crossed.