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  • 1.  PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Feb 23, 2011 10:51 AM

    I have been using PGP Desktop for years without any problems and I recently purchased a new computer with Windows 7.  I installed PGP Desktop 10.0, which probably upgraded itself to 10.1, but I have no way of telling at this point. 

    Using WDE, I encrypted first an external hard drive using an e-token and it worked just fine using my password and the e-token to access the drive. 

    Then, yesterday, I encrypted the main partition on my hard drive using WDE in conjunction with the same e-token/password.  I was interrupted and had not gotten around to setting the passphrase recovery questions - and when I got back to my computer it had rebooted for some reason and was on the WDE password screen.  When I type in my password, it says that the authentication is not valid.  It is not a question of forgetting the password because it is well known to me. 

    Is there any over-ride to the password - or any other way to get into my computer so that I can decrypt the drive? 

    Can I take the drive out and attach it to my old computer to decrypt it with the PGP version that is on it?  What if the password (which I know is correct) still does not work?  How can I recover the drive?



  • 2.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Feb 23, 2011 11:13 AM

    You can probably do the decryption by attaching the disk to your other machine.  If you need to, you can download an image to create and use the WDE Recovery CD, which this Knowledge Base Article can help you with.  If you use the 10.1 CD, I believe you can use the Advanced selection to determine what PGP version was used for the encryption.  If you use the CD for decryption, be aware that this 16 bit processing is quite slow, and be sure that the decryption is not disrupted.



  • 3.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Feb 23, 2011 02:51 PM

    It appears that the recovery CD idea does not work - even when booting from the recovery CD, it still asks for my passphrase and when I input it tells me that the authentication is incorrect.  So my only option is to try taking out my hard drive and decrypting from another machine. 



  • 4.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Feb 24, 2011 03:30 PM

    Do you know if your USB port is 2.0 or 3.0? Are you on an iCore based system?

    You will want ot make sure the version on the old computer is at least the same as the version on the machine you can not access right now. I would suggest updating the version on the old machine to 10.1.1. You should then be able to use the token to access the disk.



  • 5.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password
    Best Answer

    Posted Feb 24, 2011 04:36 PM

    Fortunately, my old computer still had the updated version of PGP on it so I was able to take out the hard drive of my new machine, and using a SATA to USB drive dock hook up the newdrive to the old machine and decrypt.  The passphrase was recognized on the old machine using the etoken. 

    So I can read my drive now, but I'm back to square 1 on the encryption!



  • 6.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Feb 24, 2011 08:16 PM

    I know that prior to 10.1 PGP Desktop was not able to read tokens attached to USB 3.0 ports. There were also difficulties on iCore based machines even when a USB 2.0 port was used. My understanding was that we had corrected that in version 10.1.

    Can you give me the specifics of the laptop and the token?



  • 7.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Feb 25, 2011 10:30 AM

    I have an Alienware M15x running Windows 7.  It is an iCore i7 with USB 2.0 ports.  The token is an Aladdin etoken Pro 64k with etoken PKI Client 4.55.61 software installed.

    As I stated in a previous email, I had already encrypted a removable hard drive - a WD Passport Essential 500 GB and was able to get use the etoken and passphrase to get into it with no problems (however, of course, that was not upon boot.)

    I do have the token and the removable hard drive connected to a Belkin 7-port USB 2.0 hub which is connected to the computer.

    One other thing that occured to me, but I don't think should be a factor - I do have KeyScrambler Premium 2.7.1.0 installed (by QFX Software).  I believe that this program starts upon Windows boot, so I don't think it would be a factor in logging onto Windows, but I thought I would mention it.

    If you would like any other information, please let me know.



  • 8.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Mar 01, 2011 10:01 AM

    I have a similar problem. I bought a brand new Dell XPS L501x with Intel i5-460M(2.53GHz) Mobile CPU running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. The laptop has USB 3.0 ports. I am using PGP Desktop Enterprise 10.1.1 with eToken Runtime v5.x SP1 and Aladdin eToken 32k. I encrypted the HDD (640Gb) using the eToken. But when I rebooted and enetred the passphrase with eToken inserted in the USB port PGP does not appear to be progressing any further after pressing Ctrl + Enter. Even the eToken is not accessed, I can tell as the red light does not light up at all. I have to reboot the laptop and I am using the correct passphrase, I verified this by using it on my desktop by logging on to eToken. I have tried using the recovery CD but it is of no use at all because PGP Bootguard does not progress beyond passphrase screen.

    Any workarounds apart from pulling out the HDD would be appreciated.



  • 9.  RE: PGP Encrypted Drive doesn't recognize password

    Posted Mar 02, 2011 11:21 AM

    Have you tried all of the USB ports one by one with a full reboot.  Had a similar problem on a Lenovo laptop where only one of the USB ports would read the eToken.

    Is there a bios update for the Dell XPS L501x?