I am trying to get Bitlocker working on the C: drive of a Dell Venue 11 (5130) 32bit, running Windows 8.1Update Enterprise. I click Turn on BitLocker and the system checks the perrequisites and is happy. Then I type in a PIN (6 numbers) and confirm it and hit Set PIN. At this point it fails with a message saying "The system cannot find the file specified".

I am an Admin on the machine. TPM is working fine. GPO is not setting either BitLocker or TPM to store on the AD DS. Secure Boot is turned on in BIOS. Plus I've tried the reverse of all of these.

I've spent hours reading through web articles without any joy, so I'm hoping someone can give me a pointer. Please.

Hi

Similar post here:

http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/514136-bitlocker-on-windows-8-1-issue

Ed. I've seen that thread thanks. The partitions are all set up correctly and I've seen no signs of any boot issues in the event log.

Hi Eric G-S,

Could you check if you have system reserved partition on your computer? You can check this via disk management.

what's the free space of that partition?

Alex

There is a 128MB Reserved Partition, but it only shows up in diskpart, not in Disk Management as shown in your screenshot. Diskpart shows it as hidden.

There are also a 300MB Recovery partition and the 100MB System partition as well as the 57GB Primary partition.

I am experiencing the exact same issue with the Dell Venue 11 (7130). The most maddening part is that I can build a unit out from scratch, fully update the OS (Windows 8.1 Enterprise), load all drivers and Bitlocker appears to be ready to roll.  When I use this machine to capture an image with WinPE and DISM and apply it to another machine, I then get the "The system cannot find the file specified."

We are currently viewing a ProcMon file of the time right at the point of error and have not yet turned anything up.

I, too, am hours into this.  Dell has been involved with no solution to this point.  Anyone have any suggestions based on this additional info?

I'm getting a lot further after going into the BIOS and switching off TPM Security. Which sounds completely wrong, but it's working.

EDIT: Ignore this: It allowed me to save the recovery key to the network rather than a USB device so I thought it was working.

• Edited by Eric G-S Friday, October 03, 2014 2:41 PM

Sooooo, what we have found is that when we captured the image, since we had already opened the Bitlocker console (even though we hadn't actually Bitlocked the unit), the REAgent.xml file (in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery) had been populated with the specific GUIDs for both WinreBCD and WinreLocation path.

Currently testing our assumption that if this file is reset with null values prior to capture, Bitlocker will have no issues on the imaged units.

• Marked as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Thursday, October 23, 2014 9:01 PM

I manually set the GUIDs and offset in REagent.xml to 0's. Bitlocker now works as intended. However I don't know what else I've broken as the fields retain all 0's even if the file is recreated from scratch.

Rather than setting to 0's, I have reset the REAgent.xml file back to its "original" state:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8' standalone='yes'?>
<WindowsRE version="2.0">
         <WinreBCD id=""></WinreBCD>
         <WinreLocation path="" id="0" offset="0"></WinreLocation>
         <ImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0"></ImageLocation>
         <PBRImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" index="0"></PBRImageLocation>
         <PBRCustomImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" index="0"></PBRCustomImageLocation>
         <InstallState state="0"></InstallState>
         <OsInstallAvailable state="0"></OsInstallAvailable>
         <CustomImageAvailable state="0"></CustomImageAvailable>
         <WinREStaged state="0"></WinREStaged>
         <ScheduledOperation state="4"></ScheduledOperation>
         <OperationParam path=""></OperationParam>
         <OsBuildVersion path=""></OsBuildVersion>
         <OemTool state="0"></OemTool>
</WindowsRE>
Assuming your partition scheme includes a recovery partition, a winre.wim needs to be on the recovery drive @ Recovery\WindowsRE.
Then run:
REAgentC /SetREImage /Path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
REAgentC /enable

• Marked as answer by Brandon RecordsModerator Thursday, October 23, 2014 9:01 PM

I overcame that message after checking all paths were correct an present in

bcdedit.exe /enum ALL

Those that were unknown, I set correcty using bcdedit /set...

Afterwards, the "file" was found and it worked.

I've just recreated my entire image. Allowed me to fix a couple of other things at the same time. Works now.

Hi guys,

Almost have the same problem, and still not able to solve it now [despite lots of search].

I used to have BitLocker working on my laptop, but I removed it before cloning [with Paragon] my SSD to a new and bigger one. When I replaced the SSD the system did not boot, and I had to create a new BCD store by copying UEFI boot files from the system directory on fix the UEFI boot partition. When the boot problem was fixed, I used gParted to extend my C: partition and delete useless recovery partitons at the end of the drive. So actual partitioning is as follow [as per Diskpart]:

  Partition ###   Type                Size         Offset
  -------------         ----------------   -------       -------
  Partition 1         Recovery         500 MB   1024 KB
  Partition 2         System            300 MB    501 MB
  Partition 3         Reserved         128 MB    801 MB
  Partition 4         Primary            930 GB    929 MB

So I guess I made something wrong when I tried to repair the UEFI boot partition... Well, now it boots correctly, but I can't enable BitLocker anymore and get the not-so-explicit "The system cannot find the file specified" error you had. Here is what I get with a "bcdedit.exe /enum ALL":

Firmware Boot Manager
---------------------
identifier              {fwbootmgr}
displayorder            {bootmgr}
                        {d10304b6-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
                        {d10304b1-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
                        {d10304b2-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
                        {d10304b4-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
                        {d10304b3-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
                        {d10304b5-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
timeout                 0

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-gb
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {4496c237-5dd0-11e4-be46-f1ba631dfb0b
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304ae-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             Setup

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304af-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             Boot Menu

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b0-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             Recovery

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b1-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             SATA HDD:

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b2-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             USB CD:

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b3-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             USB FDD:

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b4-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             USB HDD:

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b5-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
description             NETWORK:

Firmware Application (101fffff)
-------------------------------
identifier              {d10304b6-5db7-11e4-bf1c-806e6f6e6963
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description             Windows Boot Manager

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 8.1
locale                  en-gb
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {4496c237-5dd0-11e4-be46-f1ba631dfb0b
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Standard
detecthal               Yes

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier              {4496c237-5dd0-11e4-be46-f1ba631dfb0b
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winresume.efi
description             Windows Resume Application
locale                  en-gb
inherit                 {resumeloadersettings}
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
filedevice              partition=C:
filepath                \hiberfil.sys
bootmenupolicy          Standard
debugoptionenabled      No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier              {memdiag}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\memtest.efi
description             Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale                  en-gb
inherit                 {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess         Yes

EMS Settings
------------
identifier              {emssettings}
bootems                 No

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier              {dbgsettings}
debugtype               Serial
debugport               1
baudrate                115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier              {badmemory}
badmemorylist           0x10007

Global Settings
---------------
identifier              {globalsettings}
inherit                 {dbgsettings}
                        {emssettings}
                        {badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier              {bootloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}
                        {hypervisorsettings}

Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier              {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype     Serial
hypervisordebugport     1
hypervisorbaudrate      115200

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier              {resumeloadersettings}
inherit                 {globalsettings}

I also enabled Fast Bios and ACHI Mode in my BIOS [along with enabling Secure Boot on UEFI mode], as well as tried to clear TPM and reinitialize it, but that didn't change anything. And thanks to your posts I had a look to C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ReAgent.xml but it does not seem to be populated with the any GUIDs:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<WindowsRE version="2.0">
  <WinreBCD id="{24b2af92-fddf-11e1-bfa1-001377e67dbe}"/>
  <WinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="254619418624" guid="{f2ebfdb1-aa8c-453d-9c40-68aed6c32395}"/>
  <ImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/>
  <PBRImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/>
  <PBRCustomImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/>
  <InstallState state="1"/>
  <OsInstallAvailable state="0"/>
  <CustomImageAvailable state="0"/>
  <IsAutoRepairOn state="1"/>
  <WinREStaged state="0"/>
  <OperationParam path=""/>
  <OsBuildVersion path="9600.16384.amd64fre.winblue_rtm.130821-1623"/>
  <OemTool state="0"/>
  <IsServer state="0"/>
  <DownlevelWinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="1048576" guid="{f2ebfdb1-aa8c-453d-9c40-68aed6c32395}"/>
  <IsWimBoot state="0"/>
  <ScheduledOperation state="5"/>
</WindowsRE>

Nevertheless I have a ReAgent_Merged.xml1 file in that same folder, which contains:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<WindowsRE version="1.0">
    <WinreBCD id="{24b2af8c-fddf-11e1-bfa1-001377e67dbe}"/>
    <WinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="1048576" guid="{f2ebfdb1-aa8c-453d-9c40-68aed6c32395}"/>
    <ImageLocation path="\recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="1048576" guid="{f2ebfdb1-aa8c-453d-9c40-68aed6c32395}"/>
    <OsInstallLocation path="\RecoveryImage" id="0" offset="231720616448" guid="{f2ebfdb1-aa8c-453d-9c40-68aed6c32395}" index="1"/>
    <CustomImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/>
    <InstallState state="1"/>
    <OsInstallAvailable state="1"/>
    <CustomImageAvailable state="0"/>
    <IsAutoRepairOn state="1"/>
    <WinREStaged state="0"/>
    <OperationParam path=""/>
    <OsBuildVersion path="9200.16384.amd64fre.win8_rtm.120725-1247"/>
    <OemTool state="0"/>
    <BootKey state="0"/>
    <IsServer state="0"/>
    <ScheduledOperation state="4"/>
</WindowsRE>

So I'm stuck, and any pointer would be greatly appreciated. :-/

Cheers,

Kwansetsu

• Edited by Kwansetsu Thursday, October 30, 2014 4:11 PM

Sooooo, what we have found is that when we captured the image, since we had already opened the Bitlocker console (even though we hadn't actually Bitlocked the unit), the REAgent.xml file (in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery) had been populated with the specific GUIDs for both WinreBCD and WinreLocation path.

Currently testing our assumption that if this file is reset with null values prior to capture, Bitlocker will have no issues on the imaged units.

I was receiving the same error and your post helped me out. Thinking the problem was related to the REAgent.xml file I renamed the file to REAgent.old and was able to start the encryption process.

Sooooo, what we have found is that when we captured the image, since we had already opened the Bitlocker console (even though we hadn't actually Bitlocked the unit), the REAgent.xml file (in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery) had been populated with the specific GUIDs for both WinreBCD and WinreLocation path.

Currently testing our assumption that if this file is reset with null values prior to capture, Bitlocker will have no issues on the imaged units.

I was receiving the same error and your post helped me out. Thinking the problem was related to the REAgent.xml file I renamed the file to REAgent.old and was able to start the encryption process.

I had the WinRE image, a Recovery Image and a Custom Refresh Image registered with reagentc.

Obviously I had done something like diskpart /s AssignLettersToPartitions-UEFI.txt first (find that file in the TechNet docs if needs be)

Then I've simply ran

reagentc /disable

reagentc /setreimage /path T:\Recovery\WindowsRE 1

after which I was able to start BitLocker.

This kept my Recovery Image registered but not the Custom Refresh Image. I had to register that again using

recimg /setcurrent R:\CustomImage

• Proposed as answer by ewjnl 55 minutes ago

run reagentc /disable first ;)

• Edited by ewjnl 54 minutes ago

Sooooo, what we have found is that when we captured the image, since we had already opened the Bitlocker console (even though we hadn't actually Bitlocked the unit), the REAgent.xml file (in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery) had been populated with the specific GUIDs for both WinreBCD and WinreLocation path.

Currently testing our assumption that if this file is reset with null values prior to capture, Bitlocker will have no issues on the imaged units.

I was receiving the same error and your post helped me out. Thinking the problem was related to the REAgent.xml file I renamed the file to REAgent.old and was able to start the encryption process.

I had the WinRE image, a Recovery Image and a Custom Refresh Image registered with reagentc.

Obviously I had done something like diskpart /s AssignLettersToPartitions-UEFI.txt first (find that file in the TechNet docs if needs be)

Then I've simply ran

reagentc /disable

reagentc /setreimage /path T:\Recovery\WindowsRE 1

after which I was able to start BitLocker.

This kept my Recovery Image registered but not the Custom Refresh Image. I had to register that again using

recimg /setcurrent R:\CustomImage

• Proposed as answer by ewjnl Friday, May 01, 2015 6:25 AM

run reagentc /disable first ;)

• Edited by ewjnl Friday, May 01, 2015 6:27 AM