Microsoft KB Archive/933246

= Description of the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool for Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Enterprise =

Article ID: 933246

Article Last Modified on 3/15/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Windows Vista Ultimate
 * Windows Vista Enterprise
 * Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition
 * Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition

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INTRODUCTION
The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool is available. You can use this tool to prepare the computer for BitLocker Drive Encryption.

This article describes how to obtain this tool. This article also provides an operational overview of the tool. This overview includes system requirements and command-line parameters. Finally, this article describes the most common problems that you may encounter when you use the tool.



Windows Vista Ultimate
If you are using Windows Vista Ultimate, follow these steps to obtain the tool:
 * 1) Click Startvistastartbutton.jpg], type Windows Update in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
 * 2) Click Check for updates.
 * 3) Click View available Extras.
 * 4) Click to select the BitLocker and EFS enhancements check box, and then click Install.

Windows Vista Enterprise
If you are using Windows Vista Enterprise, use one of the following services to obtain this tool:  Microsoft Services Premier Support

https://premier.microsoft.com/troubleshoot.aspx?taid=tools Microsoft Customer Support Services

For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Support Services telephone numbers, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support



When you install this tool, the tool adds an item to the Start menu. To start the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool, use one of the following methods:
 * Click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, click BitLocker, and then double-click BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool.
 * Click Start, type BitLocker in the Start Search text box, and then click BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool in the Programs list.

After the tool finishes preparing the drive, you must restart the computer. Then, you can use the Security item in Control Panel to enable BitLocker.

How to prepare the hard disk for BitLocker Drive Encryption
To encrypt drives and to verify computer startup integrity, BitLocker requires at least two partitions. These two partitions make up a split-load configuration. A split-load configuration separates the main operating system partition from the active system partition from which the computer starts.

The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool automates the following processes to make the computer ready for BitLocker:
 * Creating the second volume that BitLocker requires
 * Migrating the boot files to the new volume
 * Making the volume an active volume

When the tool finishes, you must restart the computer to change the system volume to the newly created volume. After you restart the computer, the drive will be configured correctly for BitLocker. You may also have to initialize the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) before you turn BitLocker on.

System requirements
To create a new partition or to merge unallocated space with an existing partition, the target system must meet the following requirements:  A genuine version of Windows Vista Ultimate or Windows Vista Enterprise must be installed. The active partition must contain boot configuration data and boot files. The target partition must meet the following requirements:  The partition must be on a simple disk that is initialized for basic storage.</li> The partition must be a primary partition. Extended drives and logical drives are not supported.</li> The partition must be formatted by using the NTFS file system.</li> The partition must not be compressed.</li> The cluster size of the partition must be less than 4 KB or equal to 4 KB.</li> The partition is not using software spanning, software mirroring, or software RAID. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

314343 Basic storage versus dynamic storage in Windows XP

Note This tool works correctly in hardware RAID configurations.</li> For a split operation, at least 10 percent of the active partition must remain free after the partition size is reduced by 1.5 gigabytes (GB).</li> For a merge operation, the partition's total capacity must be at least 1.5 GB. Also, the partition must have at least 800 MB of free disk space.</li></ul> </li></ul>

The following chart shows the target system requirements.



Target system configurations
The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool supports Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Ultimate Enterprise. This tool successfully creates a split-load configuration when the active state, the system state and the boot state are all assigned to the same simple volume.

Default operational procedure
When the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool starts, it tries to create a split-load configuration by using the following methods, in order of preference:
 * Merge unallocated space with a type 0x7 Windows Recovery (WinRE) partition
 * Create a new partition from unallocated space
 * Split an existing partition

Note The tool tries to split the current active partition. If this action fails, the tool splits the largest available partition.
 * Merge unallocated space with the smallest suitable partition

Preferred order of operations
The following chart shows the preferred order of operations that the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool follows.



Command-line parameters
The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool uses a simple set of command-line parameters. These parameters make integration with enterprise deployment tools more flexible. Enterprise deployment tools include Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) and Microsoft Business Desktop Deployment (BDD). The parameters also provide customized deployment options. The following table lists the parameters. The parameters are not case-sensitive.

Example scenario 1
The target system has a single partition. To prepare the computer for BitLocker, you want to split the operating system partition. You want the following conditions to be true:
 * The size of the new partition is 1500 MB.
 * The new partition uses X for the drive letter.
 * During the operation, confirmation dialog boxes do not appear.
 * The system restarts when the operation is complete.

To use these settings, run the following command at a command prompt:

BdeHdCfg.exe -target c: shrink -newdriveletter x: -size 1500 –quiet –restart

Example scenario 2
The target system has more than one partition. To prepare the computer for BitLocker, you want to merge unallocated space with an existing partition. You want the following conditions to be true:
 * During the operation, confirmation dialog boxes do not appear.
 * The system restarts when the operation is complete.

To use these settings, run the following command at a command prompt:

BdeHdCfg.exe –target d: merge -quiet –restart

A common problem
You may receive the following error message when you use the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool:

[E_BDECFG_NO_CANDIDATES]

The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool could not find a target system drive. You may need to manually prepare your drive for BitLocker.

This error may occur in one of the following scenarios.

Scenario 1: You do not have sufficient free disk space
At least 10 percent of the active partition must remain free after the partition size is reduced by 1.5 gigabytes (GB). To resolve this error, move files to another partition or delete files.

Scenario 2: The partition contains files that cannot be moved
The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool may resize partitions to prepare a hard disk for BitLocker. Occasionally, some unmovable files may prevent the tool from defragmenting and resizing partitions. These files may include any of the following items:
 * Page files
 * Hibernation files (Hiberfil.sys)
 * The registry
 * NTFS metadata files. These include the following files and other files:
 * $mftmirr
 * $secure
 * $volume

This issue may occur even if the operating system is newly installed.

To work around this error, use one of the following methods:
 * Temporarily disable hibernation option and hard disk paging. Then, use the Windows Preinstallation Environment to delete the Hiberfil.sys file and the Pagefile.sys file. Restart the computer in Windows Vista. Then, run the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool again.
 * Reinstall Windows Vista.

Additional query words: KB 930063 Winvista

Keywords: kbexpertisebeginner kbqfe kbhowto kbinfo KB933246

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