Failed HDD under Bitlocker

Hey L1Techs,

Im having an issue as the title said with a HDD that failed, now it refuse to boot, it can get past the Post but when trying to Load windows it goes to BSoD, i have the Encryption/Decryption Key for the Bitlocker, but when i tried to Unlock it, it takes like 4 hours to respond, after this time i can see the System Reserved Partition, but the Part with the Information/OS appears as RAW, so no FileSystem according to Disk Management.

I just googled up some stuff, and usually when a HDD Fails some people recommends to create a Block to Block copy of the HDD, so you can work on a Fresh Disk and just try to Extract the Info.

  • This will work with this HDD & Bitlocker?
  • What software do you guys recommend for the Block to Block Copy?
  • Any otherway to recover the Disk info?

Checking the HDD with Crystal Disk Info i get the Caution Flag, but i dont hear any clicking on the drive itself.

Regards
-Fallen

Hi, answering your questions in order:

  • Possibly
  • clonezilla and to create the bootable usb: rufus
  • this way is safest, I don’t know much about bitlocker encryption but my guess is, if this doesn’t work your data is lost, unless you’re willing to rack out the (big ammount of) cash required for professional data recovery.

A tip for next time: x2 identical HDDs in RAID 1 or if you’re running linux (considering bitlocker definitly not) a better filesystem like btrfs

I don’t have any experience with Bitlocker, but to make a exact copy of the disk you would use the DD command in linux, you will need a hard drive of equal size or bigger to do this.

DD is a very powerful tool, be very careful when running it and be sure to triple check the command before you run it.

You said it took 4 hours to respond, I have a similar failed HDD that will not respond when trying to do anything to it, usually works fine for a minute then just freezes.

You can do Hard drive checks in a Bootable CD called “The Ultimate Boot Disk” there is a tool in there that can scan the surface of the HDD and give you a picture of the damage. The tool is low level so if it fails to respond or freezes the drive is toast, but it might just be the logic board and not the mechanical part of the hard drive.

Edit: some of the hard drive applications on “The Ultimate Boot Disk” destroy the data on the HDD you test, just a heads up.

I will try with the CC of the HDD, maybe i can save any of the information, its not mission critical but it will help, and well the Bitlocker its because we are running windows, and we get regular backups from the Machines, but the issue is with the Laptops that are on the road for quite some time, they usually dont get Backups as frequently.

I will create a Copy on a New HDD and will try, as long as i keep using a Fresh drive it will not likely freeze but atleast if it happens i will have another copy to try again.

Thanks for the replies

-Fallen