Endpoint Encryption

I'm testing a MS Surface Pro 3 with Win 8.1 64bit and it has Bitlocker installed although not turned on yet. We use Symantec's PGP Encryption Desktop 12 and it installed but when trying to start to encrypt; it states that :this disk does not appear to have a valid volume. PGP Whole Eisk can only encrypt disks with at least one valid volume.

Disk Manager shows the Windows (C:) to be Bitlocker encrypted.

In the end, PGP Encryption must function; whether Bitlocker is disable or removed. Can anyone please advise?

Are you sure that bitlocker is not enabled yet? I have seen reports from other forum boards that the Surface Pro models will occasionaly come with a drive encrypted.

Using a command prompt, run the following command :
manage-bde -status C:

This should give you a readout that tells you the bitlcoker encryption status of that drive. You might need to run the command from c:\windows\system32. If it fails initially do this command first,

cd c:\windows\system32

Then try the manage-bde -status C:

Additionally, you should be aware that the virtual keyboard may not work at bootguard. Please see the following article :

Symantec Encryption Desktop Virtual Keyboard Support Master List
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH224154 

Per the above article, you will find the following information regarding the Surface Pro 3 Virtual Keyboard :

Sorry this took so long but other duties prevailed.

You're right, the drive is already encrypted.

Any further advise to make these changes?

The drive shows it is encrypted but the status in Protection Off.

Changing the setting for Device encryption to "OFF" now the drive is Decrypting.

Thanks Phil-Support.

Bulldurn,


You're welcome!
I just saw your two posts. It looks like you have it all figured out. I'm glad I was able to help. Please help me out if you can by marking my post as the solution (As long as it had given you the information that you needed)

Regards,
Phil

Phil-Support,

Now I have a new problem and sorting thru all the findings. With the PGP reporting that; this disk does not appear to have a valid volume. Upon further research, it appears that the MS Surface Pro 3 running Windows 8.1 is using UEFI. With PGP 10.1.2, it not supported; an upgrade would be necessary to 10.3.2 and then some tweeking would be necessary and I'm not sure I want to get into that. So, my question now is: What are our options at this point?

Bulldurn

I apologize for the inconvenience, but it is absolutely neccesry to upgrade to a newer version for Windows 8 support..

Windows 8 is not supported unil version 10.3, and we are regularly applying fixes and increasing the quality of our product. So an upgrade to our latest version 10.3.2 MP3 would be strongly advised.
Running Windows 8, even on non-surface-pro machines would require an upgrade to 10.3 at least.