ESET Full Disk Encryption / FDE / problem after changing hardware

[MartinM 0]

Hello guys,

After changing the rams on one notebook and changing the motherboard on another, I came to a problem with EFDE. The EFDE won’t accept old passwords and I need to change them through password recovery. But after changing it still doesn't accept any of the passwords, the old one or the new one. Then PC starts to try to boot Windows, but it is stuck in the Windows booting loop, where Windows tries to check disk. After check disk, nothing happened. The only thing that works is decrypting the whole pc and then encrypting it back.

What can I do?

Is there any solution how to fix it when you change/upgrade hardware in your pc/laptop?

Is annoying to decrypt every pc with a bigger HDD, it is quite time-consuming.

[Kstainton 37]

Hi @MartinM,

Changing Hardware shouldn't be an issue unless you are using the TPM for Encryption and are changing the Motherboard, as the TPM is tied to the Motherboard it is simply not possible to change it without there being issues and you will need to decrypt the disk using the ESET Recovery Utility and the 'efderecovery.dat' file, which it sounds like you have already been using for decryption.

If you are planning on changing the Motherboard for reasons outside of a failure of the Motherboard, I would suggest decryption using the normal means instead and then changing the Motherboard for the new one. This is instead of changing it and then using the ESET Recovery Utility to decrypt.

As for Windows being stuck in a loop, where Windows is attempting to perform a 'Check Disk', would you mind submitting a support case to your local ESET Technical Support office: https://www.eset.com/int/support/contact/ I would be interested to get more details about this issue.

Thank you,

Kieran

Edited December 20, 2022 by Kstainton