Windows 10: Does my BitLocker Use hardware acceleration?

Hi all,

Recently I assembled my new computer, key specs for my question:

• CPU Intel i7-7700K
• MB ASUS ROG Strix Z270I
• Samsung 500GB 960 EVO NVMe M.2

One of the reasons why I bought Samsung 500GB EVO is because I red that it supports hardware encryption and i thought all I need to do is to enable encryption in Bios. I appeared that not all the motherboards support Self-encrypting drives, particularly motherboard I've got does not have and option to set SSD password.

Well, I was disappointed but my research has shown that BitLocker, built-in Microsoft tool should support SSD's hardware's capabilities of encryption and supposed to use hardware-backed encryption when I use BitLocker with no performance impact.

So I encrypted both my partitions (C and D drives, located on the same 960 EVO drive). It looks like it works fine so far: I need to enter password just once before Windows boot and for drive D I enabled auto-unlock feature, so from user point of view it works seamlessly.

The only question I got is performance impact

So trying to figure out is my BitLocker really uses hardware acceleration and check is there really no performance impact I measures SSD speed with CrystalDiskMark, and results little confused me:

First, couple screens before I enabled BitLocker (actually screens were taken couple weeks ago)





And now screens after I enabled BitLocker:





As you can see:

Read

• Seq Q32T1 is down from ~31000 to ~28000
• 4K Q32T1 is down from ~800 to ~620
• Seq is Up from ~1500 to ~1800 (!)
• 4K is Up from ~35 to ~40+ (!)

Write

• Seq Q32T1 is up 1600 to 1700
• 4K Q32T1 is ~600 to 830 (!)
• Seq is about the same or slightly higher
• 4K is about the same

UPD: I noticed that I forgot to test drive C after BitLocker was enabled, so adding the screen.
Interestingly enough, it shows much better Seq Q32T1 speed than drive D





So, I do not understand:

• Why some tests dramatically dropped while other dramatically improved?
• It is still not clear to me, does BitLocker use hardware encryption or not (uses CPU)
• Should I think about these drops as about performance degradation or not (because I also got some improvement)?

With this result, honestly, I do not think I will see the any difference, because anyway these numbers much higher than I get on other computers with SSD, for example my work laptop, brand new Dell XPS 15 (with no BitLocker) is not even close:





But anyway, those questions above do not let me rest,
can someone make sense for me out of it? *Smile

Thanks!

:)

 

Bitlocker aks for PIN before booting but encryption is not shown activated for drive in Windows

Hi,

I use Windows 10 Pro on a self encrypting Samsung SSD Drive and configured/installed it by following this guide How to Enable BitLocker Hardware Encryption with SSDs • Helge Klein.
I configured bitlocker to ask for a PIN before booting Windows and the lock symbol in the explorer as well as manage-bde status command showed that bitlocker successfully encrypted system drive C: and really used hardware encryption of the Samsung drive. Everything
seemed to work fine, but after I updated most of the drivers for my Dell Inspron 15 7559 to the newest version (Support für Inspiron 15 7000 Series 7559 | Treiber und Downloads | Dell Deutschland) bitlocker first asked to enter the recovey key
because configuration has changed and then the bitlocker symbol in Windows explorer was gone. Also the “activate bitlocker” symbol in the context menu did not appear. I tried to start the graphical interface of the bitlocker management tool but no reaction.
When I used the commandlet manage-bde I got “ERROR: The volume C: could not be opened by BitLocker. This may be because the volume does not exist, or because it is not a valid BitLocker volume”. But bitlocker kept asking for a pin on bootup and I could not
access the drive with a Live OS. So the drive still seemed to be encrypted (also using bitlocker recovery mode and executing the manage-bde -status command on c: showed that the drive was encrypted) but Windows did not recognize that after boot. After restoring
system files by an image and reboot I could access the bitlocker management tool and option in the context menu again. Now bitlocker was not activated on c: but bitlocker just had asked me to enter the pin before booting. If I tried to activate bitlocker now,
I was asked if I wanted a part or the whole partitation encrypted, which indicates that bitlock did NOT try to use the hardware but a software encryption. So obviously hardware encryption with pre-boot authentication is activated on my system but after booting
bitlocker in Windows does not show that and offers me to activate bitlocker by using software encryption. How can I restore/reset bitlocker to recognize the encrypted harddisk again and access the settings for my hardware encrypted drive (for example change
pin etc.)?

Thanks to all in advance!

 

Bitlocker & Hardware encryption on Samsung EVO 850

I have SSD of
Samsung 850 EVO, it support hardware encryption.

On SSD drive I have multiple partition, one for SYSTEM (C and one for DATA (D.

I want use hardware encoding with bitlocker for both partition. Actually i'm set bitlocker only for system. Hardware encryption for System is ok where
manage-bde -status.

For second partition on same drive hardware encryption is not supported. Why? If try set bitlocker for DATA partition, so system use software encryption, not hardware. If I run command in cmd

manage-bde -on D: -fet Hardware

I get error code 0x803100b2 - The drive specified does not support hardware-based encryption.

Its possible some fix it for use hardware encryption on multiple partion on same drive? I can format full drive again.