Clone Dell M.2 SSD boot drive, that has Bitlocker?

[primestar31]

Well, my attempt to replace my 256GB C: SSD this past Monday was an utter failure. EVERYBODY told me to decrypt the Bitlocked drive first and turn off Bitlocker, but I didn't when I saw Macrium said it could clone without doing that. Stupid me, that was good advice. Anyway, I printed out my saved Bitlocker keys, just in case, as both my Dell Inspiron 5505's 256GB C: drive, and a separate 1tb SSD D: drive for user stuff was Bitlocked. That's because Dell by DEFAULT, forces Windows 10 to encrypt the drives right after first installation setup. That's turned on in BIOS.

So, since my laptop has two SSD slots, I removed my D: drive, installed the new Crucial brand 1tb SSD, and proceeded to clone. It got almost all the way done, and FAILED with an error that said I had to run CHKDSK /r on the new drive! So, I set it up to do that, and rebooted. It ran through the CHKDSK, and completed successfully. I then re-ran the clone with Macrium, but forgot to expand the volume this time, so the image was the same size as on the original 256GB SSD. I then ran it a THIRD time, and expanded it. This time it completed successfully. I shut down my computer, removed the former 256GB C: drive, and swapped it for the new 1TB drive. Reassembled the laptop, and powered up. It booted up, asked for the Bitlocker key, but none of them would work! Holy CRAP!

I went on my wife's laptop, logged into my Microsoft account, and WTF, there's 3 NEW bitlocker keys uploaded TODAY (Monday) all listed for those installation drive attempts! Anyway, ONE of them (last one) worked to access it. I then entered my pin, and it went into Windows. After less than 5 minutes BAM! Blue screen of DEATH with an error, but it was so fast, I couldn't even take a photo of the error screen, and it rebooted. Dell Support Access fails hardware test every time. It does the same thing every time I tried to boot it up. Tried it like 5-6 times. So, I'm back to the original drives.

So, I believe that drive is faulty in some way, since I was forced to run CHKDSK the very first clone. I returned it to Amazon today, and hope I can get a good replacement drive that'll work.

P.S.: I spent all day Tuesday running Bitlocker decryption on both my original drives, and it only took about 6 hours and decrypted both of them at the same time, and Bitlocker is now turned OFF. So I'll be better prepared next time I try.

This is the BAD drive I tried, and returned: Amazon.com

This is the replacement drive I have coming, which is the original one upthread that I had planned on getting, but stupidly decided to try saving a few bucks on the one that failed, or was bad: Amazon.com

P.S. arlo You saved me with the: 'manage-bde -status', etc commands you posted above, so I could watch what was going on. THANK-YOU!

 

[FTA4PA]

Well, my attempt to replace my 256GB C: SSD this past Monday was an utter failure. EVERYBODY told me to decrypt the Bitlocked drive first and turn off Bitlocker, but I didn't when I saw Macrium said it could clone without doing that. Stupid me, that was good advice. Anyway, I printed out my saved Bitlocker keys, just in case, as both my Dell Inspiron 5505's 256GB C: drive, and a separate 1tb SSD D: drive for user stuff was Bitlocked. That's because Dell by DEFAULT, forces Windows 10 to encrypt the drives right after first installation setup. That's turned on in BIOS.

So, since my laptop has two SSD slots, I removed my D: drive, installed the new Crucial brand 1tb SSD, and proceeded to clone. It got almost all the way done, and FAILED with an error that said I had to run CHKDSK /r on the new drive! So, I set it up to do that, and rebooted. It ran through the CHKDSK, and completed successfully. I then re-ran the clone with Macrium, but forgot to expand the volume this time, so the image was the same size as on the original 256GB SSD. I then ran it a THIRD time, and expanded it. This time it completed successfully. I shut down my computer, removed the former 256GB C: drive, and swapped it for the new 1TB drive. Reassembled the laptop, and powered up. It booted up, asked for the Bitlocker key, but none of them would work! Holy CRAP!

I went on my wife's laptop, logged into my Microsoft account, and WTF, there's 3 NEW bitlocker keys uploaded TODAY (Monday) all listed for those installation drive attempts! Anyway, ONE of them (last one) worked to access it. I then entered my pin, and it went into Windows. After less than 5 minutes BAM! Blue screen of DEATH with an error, but it was so fast, I couldn't even take a photo of the error screen, and it rebooted. Dell Support Access fails hardware test every time. It does the same thing every time I tried to boot it up. Tried it like 5-6 times. So, I'm back to the original drives.

So, I believe that drive is faulty in some way, since I was forced to run CHKDSK the very first clone. I returned it to Amazon today, and hope I can get a good replacement drive that'll work.

P.S.: I spent all day Tuesday running Bitlocker decryption on both my original drives, and it only took about 6 hours and decrypted both of them at the same time, and Bitlocker is now turned OFF. So I'll be better prepared next time I try.

This is the BAD drive I tried, and returned: Amazon.com

This is the replacement drive I have coming, which is the original one upthread that I had planned on getting, but stupidly decided to try saving a few bucks on the one that failed, or was bad: Amazon.com

P.S. arlo You saved me with the: 'manage-bde -status', etc commands you posted above, so I could watch what was going on. THANK-YOU!

We have been running the drive you sent back for over a year in our main system that is on 24/7 and have had no issues. Must have just been a dud you got.

 

[arlo]

Was that the Amazon reply? If so, I'm rolling my jeans wayyyy up. A 'dud' should have been returned to the mfgr. Period.
Welcome to the world of too much encryption. Works okay until you need to change something I guess. Then. Walgreens for Advil.
Been there.
I still believe in Acronis. I've used a lot. And I mean a lot. Of cloning tools.

First thing in mind is. Okay. I cloned it and I have me bluddy keys. But did s**tlocker generate keys based on the drive firmware, serial number, volume number. Throw it all in a cook pot and spit out a key? So even if johnnyhacker managed to grab a key. Send you out for a bite. Bit copy your drive to his. He'd still be s.o.l.?

My counterpart in my previous life got crafty. There was a real need to have a machine manufacturer stand-alone computer that functioned as a data compiler, numbers cruncher, and server. Of sorts. One of those things that would really make life so much easier at work.
But. At 6-grand plus for the pc and 15k a year for software. It was a no-go with the bean counters in their air conditioned plushy offices.
So in a rally to prove how much the system would speed up the operation during the daily 'crunch time' when it all had to go out the door on time. He spoke with a sales rep.
Hey Charlie. It sure would be nice to use one of those systems for a week or so to prove the need.
Maybe they will see the light.
I found out that Chuckie sent one for him to use. On a two week trial.

We all had the software. It was included in the periodic and mandatory stack of update CD's that each branch needed to install.
Always on a weekend when the plant was shut down. And almost always hours of testing the installation for glitches.
That always sucked big time. Especially when all of the software engineers in Texas were out fishing and golfing and stuff.

Anyways. Joe. I mentioned that we all had the software included in the CD's.
But....without a HASP dongle to hang on the pc serial port. Software just-a-wasn't-gonna'-work.
Joey was 6 steps ahead. He got that pc delivered. Instead of inserting the dongle and getting it running. He packed that sucker up and overnighted it to Canada. And a few days later. Got it back and a cloned dongle to boot.

Of course what did Joe do? Told the sales guy that when the bean counters heard that he got the pc. To box it right up and send it back.
No way they would authorize the expendature and yearly software agreement.
None of the entire string of computers were exposed to anything other than their own LAN.

All I know is that. "This guy" cloned a HDD with a Sentinel softlock. Acronis don't care. The cloned drives worked perfectly on any pc they were hooked to. No Canada needed.

 

[primestar31]

We have been running the drive you sent back for over a year in our main system that is on 24/7 and have had no issues. Must have just been a dud you got.

Well, I hope the new one gets here before my 30 day free trial of Macrium Reflect runs out. I'm not about to pay $50! for a "one year" license for it, which is the cheapest path. User comments on Amazon say they'd had issues using Acronis on Dells when cloning?

Even with Prime, Amazon no longer ships in two days here. My shipping date is one week out, and they claim it's in stock!

 

[FTA4PA]

Well, I hope the new one gets here before my 30 day free trial of Macrium Reflect runs out. I'm not about to pay $50! for a "one year" license for it, which is the cheapest path. User comments on Amazon say they'd had issues using Acronis on Dells when cloning?

Even with Prime, Amazon no longer ships in two days here. My shipping date is one week out, and they claim it's in stock!

Agreed, even with Prime, delivery from Amazon is not what it used to be. We dropped Prime a while back as it just wasn't worth it to us any longer.