Prompted to Format Removable Drive After Encrypting

Products

• Drive Encryption

Issue/Introduction

After encrypting an external drive, when you restart the computer with the external drive connected, you are prompted to authenticate with the external drive. After authenticating, you see the message: You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.

You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it.

Resolution

Check for upper and lower filter drivers on the system found here in the registry to see what is attached:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Defaults DWORD should have partmgr and pgpwded as upper filters

 

Also search for something similar to iaStorF for the lower filter driver (SATA storage controller driver)

 

When using a Western Digital we may have upper filter drivers: 

 

Shockprf

DzHDD64 

 

You may also want to check if there is any 3rd party drive encryption software’s installed. If a 3rd party software was installed and removed, the upper and lower filters may still remain. Below is the screen shot of the Western Digital encryption software that is included with the drive.

 

 

Perform a clean boot making sure Symantec and Microsoft services are running. 

 

Workaround:

Shutdown the PC, disconnect the drive and boot the computer, then connect the drive. 

 

Applies To

Symantec Encryption Desktop 10.x