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  • 1.  How to fix PGP WDE Hang during decryption/encryption and wont resume

    Posted May 20, 2012 03:19 AM

    PGP WDE Hangs during decryption/encryption and wont resume

    If PGP Desktop hangs during decryption (or encryption), I have found that sometimes a Windows system command probably stopped the process.  When this occurs, the progress bar (% complete) won't change, and you also won't be able to resume or stop (sound familiar?).  In this situation, all you need to do is "nudge" the wde engine to start again.  

    Thus, do the following in the command prompt using the PGP command line instructions:

    -->Start-->All Programs-->Accessories-->right click on Command Prompt then select Run as Administrator

    Once you are in the black command prompt window, type:

    cd \Program Files (x86)\PGP Corporation\PGP Desktop\

    Once you are in the PGP Desktop directory:

    (if you were decrytping, then issue the command)

    pgpwde --decrypt --passphrase "passphrase" --disk 0

    (if you were encrytping, then issue the command)

    pgpwde --encrypt --passphrase "passphrase" --disk 0

    You should then get a response which reads as follows:

    "Request sent to Start decrypt disk was successful" for decrypting or a similar message if encrypting but only with "encrypt" instead of "decrypt" in the response.

    Then, you will notice in the windows PGP Desktop window that the process successfully resumed. 

     

     



  • 2.  RE: How to fix PGP WDE Hang during decryption/encryption and wont resume

    Posted May 20, 2012 10:40 AM

    similar issue i had, but via pgpwde CLI a decrypt resume didnt work... perhaps you can check my issue :

     

    https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/de/forums/pgp-wde-vmdk-esx-problem-after-decrypting-accessing-data-bsod

     

    regards

    ben



  • 3.  RE: How to fix PGP WDE Hang during decryption/encryption and wont resume

    Posted May 20, 2012 02:43 PM

    Not really thatg sure about what to do for a VM disk encryption.  My guess is that after looking over the history there is potential for the master boot record (MBR) of the VM to get corrupted or mangled.  Recall, if you ever defrag the HDD on the machine where the VM was spawned you could potentially induce an irreversible change on the MBR files which will wreak havoc on proper VN initialization. I say this because minimal problems on an HDD that has been whole-disk encrypted using PGP will be realized only when almost no changes are made to the MBR files. 

    When using Diskkeeper or PerfectDisk for defragging the HDD, PerfectDisk Corp. has downloadable files that modify the Windows registry to cause PerfectDisk not touch the MBR.  These are called exclusions, and it's quite specific on how they successfully work.  

    Overall, something may be getting altered in the MBR of the VM on the machine that is used to create/modify/store the VM.   Alternatives would be to simply put the entire unencrypted VM on an IronKey flash drive, which are military strength encypted -- enter a passphrase when they're plugged into a PC once and any changes that occur to software/files in the flash drive (e.g., data modifications) stay encypted once the flashdrive is locked down or pulled out of the PC.   Either that, or make an encypted folder in the VM, which users would have to mount/dismount once the VM is running.  In this situtation, you would need to remove changes (traces) in Windows cleaning and disk scrubbing utility. 



  • 4.  RE: How to fix PGP WDE Hang during decryption/encryption and wont resume

    Posted May 22, 2012 06:25 PM

    check disk health (look for specific vendor software, defrag, chkdsk..)

    try encrypting from safe mode (not sure if possible)

    do you have any security software application, or hard drive /partition that can be interfering this process?

    check disk is supported:

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH149543