Endpoint Encryption

Good Morning,

We currently have an issue with the SEE encryption software.
When installing encrytpion on one particular laptop (hp elitebook 2530p) we installed the SEE framework 7.0.5 and full disk 7.0.5 and both installed correctly. (Using SSO).
However after the first reboot windows will not load. When switched on, the encryption logon screen appears and the user can login or we can login as the administrator. Windows then starts to load but will freeze before loading the desktop. Therefore the laptop has become unusable. And we could not send any commands to the laptop to uninstall the SEE software. Therefore the only way we could solve this issue was to reimage the laptop.

After reimaging the laptop we installed SEE again, and the same issue happened.

This issue has only occured on this one laptop, and we have installed on other laptops of the same model without any issues. Therefore has anyone seen this issue before? or if this error has been seen before by symantec? If so is there a common issue i.e faulty hard drive?

Thanks in advance

Allan

PS We are running windows XP SP3

I know its quite a long shot, but have you tried setting the BIOS to defaults, or specifically changing the SATA/IDE compatibility / AHCI mode? I've seen simiilar before, not with encryption but general issues. Otherwise it might be worth doing chkdsk after booting into the access CD, or an integrity check for SEE using the recovery CD.

I have a same problem, but my laptop Toshiba Tecra M-11 installed windows 7 64 bits.
Someone has a solution, please!!!!!!

Thanks for the reply DavidC.

Ive spoken to Symantec, they said the following:

Things to check for (in order of likelihood)

1. BIOS revision or BIOS settings with regard to HDD
2. Difference in Hard Drive type (Solid State, SATA, IDE) or Faulty Hard Drive.
3. Difference in chipset or other hardware.
4. Anything that will change the MBR (recovery partition, dual boot OS)
5. Anything that pre-empts or changes the windows GINA (Biometrics functions of some laptops, Netware)

In our case i think it is a faulty HDD.
But i will try running an integrity check as per your suggestion David. Ta

Allan

Thanks for posting the info, that's really useful for troubleshooting.

There are also the following checks that can be done in the event of issues with disk 9also to recover files) - descrption of each below:

It is recommended that the following actions take place in the order listed for the best possible chance at recovering data.
1. Contact your internal help desk for assistance.
2. Contact Symantec Technical Support for assistance.
3. Run “Recover /a”.
4. Run the SEE Hard Disk Access utility and back up any data.
5. Perform a Hard Drive consistency check.
6. Perform a hard drive backup using a “sector by sector” copy method.
7. Run “Recover /d” emergency decryption.
 
These have further been defined by Symantec below:
 

Recover /A (RECOVERY DISK)

If your computer has encountered a serious error and you cannot load Windows, first run the Recover.exe program with the /A option. The /A option attempts to repair the EAFS volume files, if the files are damaged. After the Recover program runs, the Audit Trail is reset and all events logged that have not been moved to the Windows Event Log are lost.
 

Access Utility (ACCESS DISK)

The Access utility addresses possible Windows problems. If you succeed in booting with the Access Utility, it indicates that the problem is with your Windows installation. The Access utility will allow you to pull off the critical files before you attempt to work on the Windows operating system. Two versions of the Access utility are available: 32-bit and 16-bit. Both versions contain text-based instructions in an accompanying Readme file. The 32-bit version is preferred and can be obtained on a per- request basis; the 16-bit version is included with Symantec Endpoint Encryption Full Disk software.
 

Hard Disk Consistency Check (VENDOR)

If running Recover /A fails and if the Access utility is not able to see the hard disk or to authenticate the person running the utility, then the possibility exists that the drive has physically failed. One frequent cause of failure is a read/write arm failure. Locate the bootable repair CD provided by the manufacturer and run a consistency check. If the consistency check fails, physical problems exist.
 

Recover /D (RECOVERY DISK)

If your disk passed the consistency check, run the Recover program with the /D option once to attempt to regain access to the data on your hard disk. The /D option attempts to repair the Symantec Endpoint Encryption Full Disk client
database files, then tries to decrypt the data. After the Recover program runs, the Audit Trail is reset and all events logged that have not been moved to the Windows Event Log are lost.
 

Recover /B (RECOVERY DISK)

Recover /B is not available for silent clients. If all previous steps failed, it means that a very important encryption key cannot be found. The Recover program using the /B option reads from a computer-specific recovery file that contains that key, allowing you to decrypt your data.
 
The RECOVER and ACCESS .iso(s) are WinPE based and shipped with the product itself (no longer have to contact Tech Support)

@ Davinci_UK,
I think your post is a bit irrelevant as the issue is on a cleanly built laptop so having to recover the install / data is pointless, BUT,  I can tell you that running a recover /D did in my case allow access to windows again....... for 1 reboot. Then it got stuck at the point where endpoint starts to load.

We are using Dell E6410 and E4310 laptops and have the issue of once a drive is encrypted the machine will never boot again.  I have traced this back to the HDD operation options. When run in compatibility mode the encryption works fine, but all our laptops are built in AHCI mode. As soon as we Encrypt the drive in AHCI, it never boots again.

As a test to see if it was our SEE6 that was the issue I built a SEE7 (7.03) test server. I eventually got my clients created ( see thread :  https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/problem-creating-framework-msi-invalid-server-location#comment-4084251 )
But after encrypting the C drive of my laptop it has once again failed to boot.


I am now back to trawling the support forms to see if SEE is compatible with AHCI - I know the answer to this as we have approximately 40 Lenovo T60/T400 and X200 laptops all running SEE6 in AHCI mode with no problems.  I am guessing that it is the AHCI controller on the motherboard that is not up-to-date on the SEE software side?

Sincere apologies if I confused the topic - as it was one lapto, I thought some of the recovery options may help.

Thanks for sharing your experience and troubleshooting up to now, could help other people with simialr problem - very slim pickings or any kind of knowledge with SEE it seems!

Would only be a guess as don't use HP kit here (Dell/IBM), but does indeed indicate/look like some kind of controller support issue for the HDD - really need a Symantec answer though - come on chaps!!

Please see this doc:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/docid/2008110514545848

To follow up on this, is there anything that can be run on a laptop before we install SEE to check the hard drive for errors?

Obviously we can run checkdisk but is there anything from symantec?
It seems this will happen anytime a hard drive has any bad sectors.

Thanks

I can get to the SEE login and am able to login but then screen goes blank with ...... in the top left habd corner.
I can boot into the Recover Program but Recover /A is not available.  Only /D and /B are options.

Laptop has been running with SEE 7.0.5 for about a month without any issues.  Then it just stopped working. 

Hi EnstarSupport, in your post you said

"BUT,  I can tell you that running a recover /D did in my case allow access to windows again....... for 1 reboot. Then it got stuck at the point where endpoint starts to load."

If you have encryption enforced via policy then once you decrypt the drive it will get encrypted again.