How to stop the decryption in bitlocker

[kimura]

Hi,

I have an encrypted portable hard disk that I am decrypting via windows and it took very long to decrypt - 5% every 3 hours. I tried pausing the decryption to end the entire process but when I select remove drive, it warn me that the drive is in use and I must close the program.

Is there anyway to stop the entire decryption process as I find it too long to decrypt and decide to end the process without damaging the files in the drive?

 

[firesong]

Hi,

I have an encrypted portable hard disk that I am decrypting via windows and it took very long to decrypt - 5% every 3 hours. I tried pausing the decryption to end the entire process but when I select remove drive, it warn me that the drive is in use and I must close the program.

Is there anyway to stop the entire decryption process as I find it too long to decrypt and decide to end the process without damaging the files in the drive?

Decryption should be faster if the drive is not constantly accessed. Am guessing your antivirus causes the slowdown.

Personally, since it's an external drive and you clearly don't want decryption, I'll just copy out all the data, force eject the drive and reboot, quick format the drive without decryption, and restore the data. Then ensure I disable decryption for external drives. Probably faster than waiting for the decryption process imo. And since the original data is encrypted, a quick format is fine.

Edit: This will not work if it's file-level encryption, since you have to decrypt each file.

 

[kimura]

Decryption should be faster if the drive is not constantly accessed. Am guessing your antivirus causes the slowdown.

Personally, since it's an external drive and you clearly don't want decryption, I'll just copy out all the data, force eject the drive and reboot, quick format the drive without decryption, and restore the data. Then ensure I disable decryption for external drives. Probably faster than waiting for the decryption process imo. And since the original data is encrypted, a quick format is fine.

Edit: This will not work if it's file-level encryption, since you have to decrypt each file.

Yeah I regretted decrypting it if I knew it’s so long. 2tb of data to decrypt. No antivirus running in the background. But it’s currently being decrypted. So I can’t force eject.

So you are saying I pause the decryption and start copying the files out? Then force eject?

 

[firesong]

Yeah I regretted decrypting it if I knew it’s so long. 2tb of data to decrypt. No antivirus running in the background. But it’s currently being decrypted. So I can’t force eject. Is there any way to stop the decryption process from running.

2TB is manageable, but I believe it's still faster to nuke and restore than to wait out the decryption. It could also be slower due to the USB interface. Are you planning on copying out the data and then reformatting, then restoring the data?

If so, and assuming you have the space to temporarily store the data, I would just copy out the data, and unplug the drive. Reboot, reformat without encryption, and restore.

If you don't have a temporary space to hold the data, then you'll just have to leave the PC on and wait out the process.

 

[kimura]

2TB is manageable, but I believe it's still faster to nuke and restore than to wait out the decryption. It could also be slower due to the USB interface. Are you planning on copying out the data and then reformatting, then restoring the data?

If so, and assuming you have the space to temporarily store the data, I would just copy out the data, and unplug the drive. Reboot, reformat without encryption, and restore.

If you don't have a temporary space to hold the data, then you'll just have to leave the PC on and wait out the process.

Yes I believe it’s the usb interface that’s slowing the process. Even the mouse cursor is moving at a delayed response.

Yes I’m planning to copy out the data. I can transfer directly to another spare portable harddisk but not sure how long this will take too.

Talking about the usb interface, why is it so slow in reading the portable disk? It goes the same for other portable ones when I tried to transfer big files from pc via usb to portable disk. My mouse is always hanged and can’t move as smoothly as expected when transferring. How to resolve that?

 

[firesong]

Yes I believe it’s the usb interface that’s slowing the process. Even the mouse cursor is moving at a delayed response.

Yes I’m planning to copy out the data. I can transfer directly to another spare portable harddisk but not sure how long this will take too.

Talking about the usb interface, why is it so slow in reading the portable disk? It goes the same for other portable ones when I tried to transfer big files from pc via usb to portable disk. My mouse is always hanged and can’t move as smoothly as expected when transferring. How to resolve that?

USB is slow by nature, unless you're on USB 3.2 Gen 2 (up to 10Gbps). Gen 1 and older standards max out at 480Mbps.

Also, USB does not do well in sustained speeds. It starts high and slows down. So your starting speeds are 480Mbps, and imagine how bad it gets over time. That's why Firewire and later Thunderbolt interfaces were made - for sustained throughput.

 

[blackie83]

Since you want to encrypt it just let it run until 100%
https://www.top-password.com/blog/decrypt-bitlocker-encrypted-drive-from-command-line/Your hdd which drive if d drive you set as D.
manage-bde -off D:

 

[kimura]

Thanks firesong! One last question - can I pause the decryption and turn off the pc? It will take me a while the copy the files out So i want to do in stages. Do I copy or cut the files?

 

[firesong]

Thanks firesong! One last question - can I pause the decryption and turn off the pc? It will take me a while the copy the files out So i want to do in stages. Do I copy or cut the files?

I've never decrypted, so I cannot confirm if you can pause it. Is it possible to just leave the PC be while it decrypts? (I know, electricity bills. ) Since there is actual activity and it has a very real chance of total corruption, I'm hesitant to pause/unplug until all data is backed up.

Copy, no need to cut. It's faster. Also, I think it's faster to use a command line or copying tool than Windows explorer. There are fast copy options and a few tricks to it.
https://www.maketecheasier.com/copy-large-number-files-windows/
Simply, use a fast copy tool like teracopy (paid sw), fastcopy (freeware), or robocopy (on CLI). Also, if a folder consists of a lot of small files, zip it up and copy the archive and extract it on the new drive.

 

[kimura]

now I have another problem. The PC just shut down by itself without warning. No window shutdown screen at all. The moment I switched on the pc, it turn off by itself after a few seconds. It goes to the desktop and then the pc just got switched off by itself.

could this be the power supply problem or overheating arising from 18 long hours of turning on?

what can I do? Do I unplug the drive? I’m not sure if I should switch off the psu and on again cos the portable drive is still in the process of decryption but it’s paused. I’m just afraid the files will be corrupted or it will lose its memory that the decryption process is ongoing.

 

[yusoffb01]

yur slow external hdd is due to smr. any 2.5 drive bought after 2016 are all smr. it cannot multi task. only do 1 thing at a time

 

[it_geek]

now I have another problem. The PC just shut down by itself without warning. No window shutdown screen at all. The moment I switched on the pc, it turn off by itself after a few seconds. It goes to the desktop and then the pc just got switched off by itself.

could this be the power supply problem or overheating arising from 18 long hours of turning on?

what can I do? Do I unplug the drive? I’m not sure if I should switch off the psu and on again cos the portable drive is still in the process of decryption but it’s paused. I’m just afraid the files will be corrupted or it will lose its memory that the decryption process is ongoing.

i hope you have your bitlocker recovery key. that's the most important to have so that it can restore the encryption state or fix it where required.

 

[kimura]

my pc continues to switch itself off after a few seconds of turning on. What can be done? Change the psu or CPU is already overheated?

sometimes, when i just press the on button on the desktop, it will just switched itself off after a second or so.

 

[it_geek]

try with another psu first

 

[firesong]

i hope you have your bitlocker recovery key. that's the most important to have so that it can restore the encryption state or fix it where required.

It might not be of help if you're in the midst of decrypting (ie, half here, half there) and then pull the plug. That usually results in the entire drive's data being gone.

It was one of the arguments for file-level encryption rather than whole-disk encryption. But file-level has a higher performance penalty iirc. And whole disk is usually sufficient. Plus, those so inclined can stack: encrypt file-level, folder-level, and whole-disk.