Bitlocker and Rescue and Recovery 4.0

[vincelim]

The readme file for Rescue and Recovery 4.0 indicates that it is not compatible with Bitlocker. Anyone know whether a new RR will be released and/or gotten Bitlocker to work with RR 4.0? Thanks.

[arni]

That's really interesting sice i wanted to give bitlocker a try. Maybe you we should just contact lenovo and open a support call to get any information on this topic.

[mabbas]

I think the issues is that both BitLocker and R&R communicate with the PreDesktop area, and obviously this creates a conflict. I tested it, and from my understanding that is difference of the included backup (it can't backup Bitlocker drives), and R&R had been engineered to work with their OEM encryption software as they control the PDA, as opposed to Vista using a different method of access of PDA.

[vincelim]

Basically, I got as far as trying to do a "system check" when trying to activate Bitlocker, in which I tested putting the Bitlocker password on a USB drive and restarting the system to see if it would recognize the password on the USB drive. It didn't, and Windows indicated that Bitlocker was unable to detect the encryption key so did not encrypt the drive with Bitlocker. I was hesitant to continue with trying a decryption, and assumed, like the previous poster indicated, that R&R was the conflict.

[mabbas]

Sounds on the mark. Both the PreDesktop area, and access to TPM are bound, to prevent one from trying to hack the OS, via loading a liveCD or something to that effect. MS didn't engineer the OS to handle the PDA the same way as Lenovo is working it. The benefit is you are assured that using the IBM/Lenovo PDA your secured drive is secured, the downfall is there is no way to back it up. I assume that the next version of R&R will address that issue, as BitLocker may replace the disk encryption methodology included on Lenovo products today. This is simply another case of MS providing a tool, but not extending all of it's functionality, hence why OEM manf. such as Lenovo have their own suite of tools to address those concerns... extensibility.
Good luck,
J

[GomJabbar]

The benefit is you are assured that using the IBM/Lenovo PDA your secured drive is secured, the downfall is there is no way to back it up.

Not exactly true. If you Disable the Predesktop Area in the BIOS, you can use cloning software to back it up.

[WilsonF]

I got BitLocker to work on a clean install of Vista Enterprise on my T60p but I had to initialize the security chip. Then I blew away the installation and went back to my non-bitlocker Vista install.

I think that the OEM security / R&R software uses only 128 bit encryption, which isn't very secure by today's standards; it can be broken with a brute force attack in a reasonable amount of time by governments that really really want to know what's on your hard drive. Bitlocker can use 256 bit encryption, which is (at least most people claim) not susceptible to type of attack.

However, an acquaintence in law enforcement told me that encrypted hard drives and folders are broken most frequently by trying passwords that the user has for other purposes and trying all of those passwords.

[mabbas]

Cool.

The Utimaco client has an antihammering algorithm in it, so if you are guessing the passphrase and get it wrong the response time will be unbearable and one would possibly trying to crack the passphrase.

My apologies about the backup comment. I guess the issue I would like to understand is will the backup work when restored? I thought there was some tie to the TPM chip that would be broken or corrupted if using other software.

[vincelim]

Well, I went ahead and decided to uninstall R&R 4.0 and setup Bitlocker. I can't say that I really used R&R for any reason.

Bitlocker seems to be working perfectly and as far as I can tell, with virtually unnoticable slowdown. I'm still hoping Lenovo will release a compatible version of R&R 4.0 soon, though. And hopefully Bitlocker is as secure as it's intended to be!