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BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool 

Brief Description
The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool configures the hard disk drives in your computer properly to support enabling BitLocker.

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Validation Required

This download is available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows. Please click the Continue button to begin Windows validation. As described in our privacy statement, Microsoft will not use the information collected during validation to identify or contact you.

Windows Vista users must pass Microsoft Genuine validation requirements to enable certain product features and to obtain non-security updates and product support from Microsoft. For more information, go to the Windows Genuine Advantage FAQ.

Quick Details
Version:1
Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:KB933246
Date Published:4/25/2008
Language:English
Download Size:916 KB - 1.8 MB*
*Download size depends on selected download components.
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Overview

Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption is a feature that encrypts one or more volumes (drives) attached to your computer and that can use a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to verify the integrity of early startup components. Because BitLocker encrypts the entire volume of data, it requires the computer to be configured with an active partition, used for startup, which is separate from the operating system volume. This is called a “split-load configuration.” User data is stored on either the operating system volume or additional data volumes, which can also be encrypted by using BitLocker.

The BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool automates the following processes to configure the hard disk drive correctly:
1. It creates a second volume, if one is not already present.
2. It moves the boot files to the correct volume, and ensures that the operating system is correctly configured to find them at startup.
3. It configures the correct volume as the active partition on the drive for startup.

When the tool finishes, you must restart the computer. The computer’s hard disk drive will then be configured correctly for BitLocker.

Note: In addition to having its hard disk drives configured correctly, your computer must meet specific hardware requirements to enable BitLocker, and you may need to initialize or configure the TPM before BitLocker can be enabled.

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System Requirements

  • Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008; Windows Vista Enterprise; Windows Vista Enterprise 64-bit edition; Windows Vista Service Pack 1; Windows Vista Ultimate; Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition
Note: BitLocker does not need to be installed on the computer for you to use the BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool, but the system must be running.

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Instructions

This download is available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows. Click the Continue button in the Validation Required section above to begin the short validation process. Once validated, you will be returned to this page with specific instructions for obtaining the download.

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