How can I DECRYPT my HP drive

[Kermani]

Hi,

I recently purchased an HP Elite notebook.  During the set up, I chose the option to ENCRYPT the drive (big mistake).

Now, it seems I cannot take Windows upgrades since my drive is encrypted.

HOW CAN I DECRYPT MY DRIVE?

Regards

[IT_WinSec]

Hello @Kermani

Welcome to the HP Support forum.

You have made an excellent choice with the Elitebook purchase.

Re. your questions:

If your disk is currently encrypted by this software, you should first open HP Client Security -> authenticate ->  click on Drive Security and follow the on-screen instructions to DECRYPT the HDD. Note that this is generally slow process and may take several hours or more depending your the amount of your HDD and your PC specifications.

You may also check if you have preboot authentication enabled. Open the HP Client Security home page -> click on the wheel Settings button -> Security Features and check there is no tick next to Power-On Authentication

With regards to HP Client Security and HP Drive Encryption, here are some screenshots with regards to these suggestions >>

https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AEyZq_GEDdnNQnE&id=73EA0FA259008E8!107&cid=073EA0FA259008E8

Finally, please restart your computer (restart, not shutdown + start again).

Eventually, if you want to, you may attempt to uninstall HP Client Security using the standard method from Control Panel >> Programs and features

You may need to first uninstall some additional security products for business class notebooks such as

File Sanitizer
Facial Recognition
Privacy Manager
Drive Encryption
Theft Recovery
HP Client security manager

If you want, you can keep HP Client security without encrypted HDD.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.

[phil-denton]

I have the same problem.  My computer is an HP Elitebook 840 G3 running HP Drive Encryption (WinMagic version 8.6.23.46) and it's showin a gray bar and "Decrypting" for over 18 hours now.  It's a 250GB SSD.  How long is the decrypt supposed to take?  Please help!

OP, did you find a solution?

[IT_WinSec]

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@phil-dentonwrote:

I have the same problem.  My computer is an HP Elitebook 840 G3 running HP Drive Encryption (WinMagic version 8.6.23.46) and it's showin a gray bar and "Decrypting" for over 18 hours now.  It's a 250GB SSD.  How long is the decrypt supposed to take?  Please help!

OP, did you find a solution?

---

@phil-denton

Have you tried restarting the computer ? Any difference after that ?

Have you tried testing your storage device using the F2 UEFI/BIOS method -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JXUp43ahHA

Let me know the output...

[phil-denton]

Thanks for the spedy response, @IT_WinSec.  This is actually a client computer so I'm deathly afraid of bricking this thing if I restart it.  I'm not all that familiar with HP Drive Encryption so I'm a little nervous to say the least.  As for the UEFI diagnostics, this machine is actually several hundred miles away from me as I do most support remotely.  I can send someone on-site if necessary...

First things first though.  What are the chances I'll end up with a brick if I reboot this thing?  At this point I'm strongly leaning towards "leave it alone until I can back everything up."

Again, thank you for the thoughtful reply.

[IT_WinSec]

Hi @phil-denton

Let's start by asking you why was the PC encrypted in first place and then why are you decrypting it now ?

Is it still stuck at decrypting ? Do you notice any progress over the decryption process ?

You can check in HP Drive Encryption software if you have enabled Power-On Authentication (preboot authentication). Make sure this is disabled - this is the best for remote support so that you guarantee that the PC can boot without prelogin credentials.

Open HP Client Security

You cannot brick the computer by simply restarting it. This is HP Drive encryption and the only thing which may happen is to make the PC unbootable (or the data on the disk inaccessible). But the PC will be OK.

The most common reason for encryption/decryption issues are HDD/SSD storage problems.

Second is the failure of the software (software problems).  That's the reason I asked for UEFI/BIOS diagnostics of the drive.

Let me know how it goes now.

What is the operating system this PC uses (version/edition/updates)  ?

[phil-denton1]

My client encrypted the computer before my company began servicing theirs.  I have to decrypt it because I have to apply Windows 10 updates which do not work with HPDE.  3 days later there's no progress.

I do have Windows logon security and One Step Logon both enabled.

I know the computer hardware will be OK but if we lose the data it basically becomes a brick until we can rebuild.  This is not good for a client machine.

They are running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 10.0.10586 on this machine.  I will check BIOS if I can get someone on-site to check things out.

Do you have any other recommendations?

[IT_WinSec]

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@phil-denton1wrote:

My client encrypted the computer before my company began servicing theirs.  I have to decrypt it because I have to apply Windows 10 updates which do not work with HPDE.  3 days later there's no progress.

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Hi,

Thanks for the details.

HP Drive Encryption is full disk encryption software. Any kind of similar software will cause similar "issues" - this is how these programs work - they apply an encryption layer and Windows 10 updates (which are basically Windows upgrades) cannot be installed while there is an active encryption layer. Same would happen if you had VeraCrypt, Bitlocker, McAfee Drive encryption, Symantec PGP, etc....

As mentioned above, most likely the HP Drive encryption is corrupted or there is a physical/hardware issue with the HDD/SSD on this PC which prevents the software from completing decryption.

In all cases, I recommend you visit the PC onsite, take a data back up, test the hardware for issues (HDD particularly). remove the preboot login screen and restart the PC to see if there will be any difference.

Windows 10 build 10586 is an old one, not supported since late 2017 and may be you should update this Windows