I'm using the Windows 7 7000 build and encrypted an external usb harddisk with Bitlocker and it is secured with password only. On Windows 7 I can use the disk, but on my Windows Vista Business and Windows XP Professional machines I can't. It popups with the message that the disk is not formatted. Also no other partition or drive letter is popping up in My Computer with a disk which contains the BitlockerToGo.exe. So after some search on my windows 7 harddisk I found the executable and copied it to a non encrypted usb stick. With the usb stick I launched the bitlockertogo.exe tool (encrypted disk was already plugged in) and it says that no encrypted disks could be found. Microsoft Disk Manager (in compmgmt.msc) in Vista says that the external disk contains one partition which is bitlocker encrypted, so technically Vista detects the harddisk as an encrypted drive. On XP the disk is just seen as a with one partition with no special things (sounds ok, because Windows XP doesn't contain Bitlocker support). My question is, how to use this disk on computers with Vista and XP, because in all presentations found on the internet they are saying that you can use Bitlocker to go disks on XP and Vista clients?

You need the BitLocker To Go Reader application for Windows XP. If you "AutoPlay" the drive, you will see the option to install the BitLocker to Go Reader, named "BitLockerToGo.exe". ~~~~TechOutsider Norton AntiVirus 2009

Hi, Please refer to the following article: (Section: BitLocker To Go) An Introduction to Security in Windows 7 Hope it helps.

Hi, Please refer to the following article: (Section: BitLocker To Go) An Introduction to Security in Windows 7 Hope it helps. In the article you are referencing to they are speaking of something like a partition where the bitlocker to go application is stored on. But the problem is that Vista and XP doesn't see such partition. So when I plug in the device it just popups the message if I want to format the drive (because WindowsVista/XPdoesn't recognize the drive as Bitlocker encrypted). So the complete functionality as described doesn't look like to work at all. What I tried out was that I manually copied the bitlockertogo app to another USB stick so that I could manually fire up that application. But that application doesn't recognize the encrypted volume either when I start it from anothervolume.The volume is encrypted exactly as described in all Video's. I did a right click on the volume in My Computer (on Windows 7 machine) and clicked on Turn On Bitlocker (or something like that). Then it encrypted the complete volume (single partition on disk), because I read elsewhere that if you have more partitions on disk and just protect one you could alse experience some problems. So I suspect there's some kind of bug here or I did something completely wrong?!?

I did the test again and it worked fine. My Windows XP computer recognizes the flash drive normally. I agree with you, it may be a potential bug. Given the situation, could you please let me know following points: 1. Does the issue occurs on several Windows XP/Vista computers? 2. If you enable Bitlocker To Go in Clean Boot(Windows 7), does the issue still occurs in Windows XP/Vista computer? If the issue still persists, could you please let me know your computer model? Thank you for your cooperation.

This evening (Amsterdam Timezone) I will test it out on a different machine with Vista Business. The issue appeared on two machines for now, one with XP Pro and one with Vista Business. If the issue still appears I will turn off encryption and will start enabling Bitlocker To Go again after a clean boot and will try it out again. The computer I'm using is a HP Compaq NC8430 with a TPM chip (I don't know if that matters for external drives). The harddrive of the machine isalso encrypted with normal Bitlocker.

Tried it out yesterday and also on my other laptop it doesn't work. It looks like the drive is not encrypted like an Bitlocker To Go drive. Currently I'm encrypting the drive again to test it out again. The drive is a Freecom Mobile Drive XXS and the laptop I'm encrypting on is a HP Compaq NC8430 with Vista Ultimate 7000 on it. I'm using the laptop inside the Microsoft CorpEuropedomain in the Netherlands. I don't know if that does matter due policies or something like that.

Thank for your reply. I will report it to our internal team to check if it is a bug. I will let you know when I receive response. Thank you for your understanding.

I tested it out again with after a new encrypt session but the same problem remains. I also noticed that bitlocker needs a connection with the Domain server before it starts encrypting, otherwise it won't do anything at all.

This week I upgraded my machine to build 7100 and decrypted and encrypted the drive again. The issue still remains. The disk which is involved is a Freecom USB Hard drive with an usb interface on the controllerboard of the harddrive. Do you need specific Vista versions to use this thing, like Ultimate and Enterprise only?

Looks like I've seen the same problem today. Using Windows 7 build 7100 - I use Bitlocker To Go on a 8GB memory stick and it can be opened fine with the Bitlocker Reader software on both Vista and Windows XP. If I encrypt an external Western Digital Passport (320GB) USB harddisk with Bitlocker To Go, once encrypted it can be accessed/read fine on Windows 7, but the autorun function and therefore the Bitlocker Reader software isn't available on Vista or XP - the drive mounts under both (as a drive letter - not volume name), but it can't be read/accessed (gives an 'Access Denied' message on Vista). I tried deleting/re-creating/formatting the partition on the USB hard disk again and doing the Bitlocker To Go encryption again, but with the same problem. I tried the USB memory stick again, and it works fine still on Vista and XP. Looks like a probable bug with Bitlocker To Go and external USB harddisk.

I have the same problem using a DANE-ELEC 160 GB USB hard disk encrypted using build 7100 on an inspiron 1501. USB Flash drives (several) work like a charm.

I've gotten an answer from someone why it doesn't work. The reason is that you explictly need a FAT formatted drive and I overlooked it. The drives I have were formatted NTFS which are NOT supported for using Bitlocker To Go on Windows XP and Vista. So maybe the documentation could be more explicit about NO support for NTFS and maybesome warning message should be given when you are going to encrypt such external drive, or thats the best solution: build in Bitlocker To Go support for NTFS drives on XP and Vista. Thnx for all the help so far.

Hello,I have been using Windows 7 BitLocker to Go Windows disk encryption tool with my SD Card.You can find a step by step guide for setting up Windows BitLocker.Windows XP recognizes removable disk storage devices easily.BitLocker encrypts and stores files within the BitLockerToGo.exe fileBecause of that if you explore the contents of the drive there will be only the .exe file and a readme document. http://www.kodyaz.comhttp://www.eralper.com

I don't know why you replied on this old thread.... In fact the problem was already solved a long time ago. In my situation it was impossible to use my disk encrypted on XP because I've got a lot of files above the 4GB, which is impossible with the FAT file system. Because Bitlocker To Go doesn't support NTFS encryption for XP and Vista this won't work. In future this feature is prettyuseless, because a lot of external storage like SD cards, USB memory sticks, etc. are becoming a lot bigger than 4GB and people also want to store things like iso images, vhd images, etc. which are very large. So a future service pack or something like that should provide support for NTFS bitlocker to go for at least Vista. On driver level Vista already recognizes the partition of encrypted NTFS bitlocker to go drives (when looking in compmgmt.msc), so technically it should be possible.

I support Captain... one thing.. why posted date showing strange!!!! Thursday, September 10, 2009 7:38 PM Anas

Formatting an external drive with the exFAT format will provide support for large files, ability to put over 255 objects in the root directory of the drive, and compatibility with Bitlocker to Go.