Encrypted external hard drive freezes laptop

[Migration User]

Hi,

I had an encrypted Sata harddrive in my laptop and was able to plug in (via USB) a non-encrypted external Sata hard drive to access data from it and I never had any kind of issues.   I recently replaced the encrypted Sata hard drive with a Solid State Drive which I was able to encrypt.   Due to company policy, I now had to encrypt the external Sata hard drive and now my laptop completely freezes up whenever I have to plug it in.   The laptop works great until i plug in the encrypted external hard drive.  If you have any thoughts/suggestions on why this may be happening, it would be greatly apprecaited.

Thanks

[_Adam_]

Hi kma1717,

1.What is the version of PGP aka SED client you are using ?
2. What is the size of the external Sata HDD which you encrypted
3. Did you try to plug in an encrypted external SATA drive to another machine with encrypted SSD drive
so you can see if the issue persist on one or more differnt laptop models.
4, What is the model of the laptop which has got this issue.
5. How the encrypted external drive SATA drive is partitioned
6. How do you connect your external drive - is this attached via SATA bus or through the USB to SATA adapter/chasis ?
7. Once external SATA drive is plug in do you see a pop up asking to unlcok the disk or your OS is getting frozen before showing any unlock pop up window

 

While plugin encrypted external drive you should also check if settings in (SEMS > Consumers > Consumer Policy > Default > Desktop button > Drive encryption tab are having "Allow User Management" ticked on Removable Disks).

 

[Migration User]

Hi Adam,

Thank you for your response.   The guy with the issue mentioned that the freezing happens 3 out of every 4 times he plugs in the encrypted extenal hard drive, it works fine 1 out of every 4 times.   Since it does work sometimes, I would think that any kind of necessary settings are correct.

1.What is the version of PGP aka SED client you are using ?...PGP SDK 4.2.1 Build 9307 10.3.0 MP3
2. What is the size of the external Sata HDD which you encrypted...250GB
3. Did you try to plug in an encrypted external SATA drive to another machine with encrypted SSD drive
so you can see if the issue persist on one or more differnt laptop models....issue still happens on other laptop
4, What is the model of the laptop which has got this issue...Lenovo T420 ThinkPad
5. How the encrypted external drive SATA drive is partitioned...there is only 1 partition for the hard drive
6. How do you connect your external drive - is this attached via SATA bus or through the USB to SATA adapter/chasis ?....via USB connection
7. Once external SATA drive is plug in do you see a pop up asking to unlcok the disk or your OS is getting frozen before showing any unlock pop up window.....when it works, we will get a popup screen....when it doesnt work, we dont get a popup screen and laptop completely freezes

 

While plugin encrypted external drive you should also check if settings in (SEMS > Consumers > Consumer Policy > Default > Desktop button > Drive encryption tab are having "Allow User Management" ticked on Removable Disks)....this setting is checked off

[Migration User]

Hi Adam,

I apologize for forgetting to add this in my previous post.....We tested another encrypted external 250GB Sata harddrive and the same thing happens.   It will work once out of every few times.

Thanks

 

[_Adam_]

Hi kma1717,

1. Is there any chance that you can run a test on Lenovo T420 ThinkPad with the latest version of PGP client  - SED 10.3.2 MP2

2. Also are you able to run this test on a managed PGP client which has got this policy turn on (ticked on)

SEMS > Consumers > Consumer Policy > Default > Desktop button > Drive encryption tab are having "Allow User Management" ticked on Removable Disks

3. Can you check if you have got this policy enable on the server (if yes disable please)

SEMS > Consumers > Consumer Policy > Default > Desktop button > Drive encryption tab  "Enable automatic encryption or locking or removable devices"

4. Is there any chance that you can test this scenario on Standalone PGP Desktop client to which you can connect external USB encrypted SATA device.

5. In the machine which you tested and was able to successfully get this up and running are you able to match differences with other machines (anything PGP versions, model laptop, OS versions and type,  specific SEMS sever settings like users in different consumer group). You could run also msinfo32.exe to match the differences or WinAduit tool available from http://download.cnet.com/WinAudit/3000-2086_4-10832099.html

6. What is the model of this external SATA drive (name, brand)

7. Did you try to connect this encrypted drive via USB 3.0 or 2.0. Some models might not work with USB 3.0.