BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool Error

solonfox

New Member
Hi,
Vista Ultimate (32 bit). Single partition 'C' drive.

I am trying to install BitLocker. I run the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool and receive the following error:

A problem occurred while preparing the drive for BitLocker Drive Encryption.
Error: 0x80070005
Access is denied.

My basic understanding is that the tool should create an active partition S: of size 1.5GB and move the boot files to the new active drive S:.

Dell D820 with 30.2 GB free. Bios A09. TPM 1.2 chip is on and activated.

I tried running as Administrator. I tried searching MS Knowledgebase. I tried turning UAC off.

It seems like this should be easy.

Help? :shock:
 

My Computer

Can you manually create that partition? If not that may be the problem....
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon HD (Embedded)
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
Okay... no, I cannot manually create the partition. I don't understand why not. I am an administrator and the only user. There is plenty of free space. The drive is defragmented regularly... hmm... are there unmovable files up there at the end of the drive?

What to do?? Reinstall?
 

My Computer

I cannot shrink the drive using Vista's Disk Manager - Access denied.

I cannot shrink the drive using Gnome Partition Editor - no error, doesn't clock, just simply refuses the command. You would think that with a third party partitioning tool that boots to a Linux GUI that it would work. The fact that it didn't work tells me that the problem isn't Vista per se; but, what does it tell me the problem is?

I tried deactivating and turning TPM off. I checked every security setting in the BIOS, nothing of interest.

Maybe I will try Acronis' Disk Director... maybe I will put the Vista CD's in, format the drive, and do a clean install, try the Drive Preparation Tool again.

I have no theories as to what the problem is and therefore no understanding of what to try next? :shock:

[... chirp, chirp... ]
 

My Computer

Honestly, not sure, unless you already shrank the partition once- then you cannot shrink it again, AFAICT.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon HD (Embedded)
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
It seems like shadow copies were the problem. Turning off shadow copies appears to have solved the trouble.

I would have expected shadow copies to be movable files. I really don't know what happened, but turning shadow copies off and deleting old versions seems to have restored my ability to shrink the drive.

I hate that I can't tell what really happened.

Acronis' Disk Director wasn't any help either.

After stopping shadow copies though, Vista Disk Manager then allowed me to shrink the volume. Subsequently, the drive preparation tool also worked.

It appears that Gnome and Acronis would now work as well.

I can't think whether this would help someone in the future because I still don't believe shadow copies should cause the problem. It has to be a case of something, some file in a bad place for continuing with the shrink.

Shadow copy utility could not have been running when I ran Gnome. But, something stopped it.
 

My Computer

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