Can repair-bde.exe from Windows 7 (x64) unlock a Bitlocker-encrypted drive from Vista x32?
Hello,
The Bitlock-encrypted installation of Vista on my laptop will not boot. I can get past Bitlocker allright by entering the password, but Vista then fails to boot with a Windows-related error message. My priority at this point is to first of
all recover all data from that drive.
I have removed the hard drive from the laptop and put it inside a hard drive enclosure. I am now attempting to use repair-bde.exe on another computer (Windows 7 x64) to copy out the (decrypted) contents of my laptop drive to a place on the Windows
7 machine. However, when I run:
repair-bde.exe O: Z:\vista.img -rp ****** -lf myrepair.log
this is all the output I get:
BitLocker Drive Encryption: Repair Tool version 6.1.7601
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
Beginning scan for BitLocker metadata.
Scanning boot sectors for pointer to metadata: 100%
Finished scanning for BitLocker metadata.
Beginning decryption.
Decrypting: 1% Complete.
After that nothing ever changes, even if I leave things running for a whole day. The log file ends up containing only this:
L O G I N F O : 0 x 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 7
V a l i d m e t a d a t a a t o f f s e t 3 3 3 7 5 5 5 9 6 8 f o u n d a t s c a n l e v e l 1 .
L O G I N F O : 0 x 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 8
S u c c e s s f u l l y c r e a t e d r e p a i r c o n t e x t .
It looks as if repair-bde fails, but will not report it. I wonder, furthermore, if the problem lies in the fact that the drive was encrypted on a Vista x32 machine but that I am running repair-bde on a Windows 7 x64 box? An x32/x64 incompatibility
would also explain why there is a whitespace next to every output character in the log file... Is my suspicion correct? Must I be running repair-bde necessarily on a Vista box, and an x32 one at that? Or can I maybe get away with using a repair-bde
instance from a Vista x32 installation CD under Windows 7 (hoping that Windows 7 will be able to run an x32 executable in some intelligent compatibility mode)?
Thanks in advance!
May 7th, 2012 10:49am