Which hard drive encryption does my PC have?

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Kenneth Madsen

n00b
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Dec 7, 2016
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I have bought a 2nd hand PC (HP with Win 10) but the hard drive is encrypted and it is not bitlocker. When I start the PC up I get a black screen with the text in the upper right corner "Enter password:"
I want to deactivate the encryption and use bitlocker instead (can't activate bitlocker when drive is already encrypted).

Does anyone have an idea of how I find out which encryption is used on the hard drive so I can uninstall it?

Thank you in advance for any pointers :)
 
Sounds like it could be a boot password configured in the BIOS.
Where at in the boot process do you get that prompt?
 
Thank you for the replies. I get it after 3 seconds after starting the laptop up. There is no password (I just press enter and it continues the boot process). But the hard drive is encrypted as it will not allow my to turn on bitlocker...
Any suggestions (really would like to avoid a clean install as a) my internet connection is really slow, and b) I got lots of stuff on the laptop that I would need to backup and reinstall (would take almost a whole day).
Thx :)
 
Just because you can't enable Bitlocker does not mean it already has encryption.

Though since you are completely vague with any info, there is no way to answer your question.

You have provided absolutely nothing to go on, other than "prompted for password at boot." Which in reality, tells a whole lot of jack and shit.

What makes you think it's encrypted, anyway?
If you get the password prompt "about 3 seconds" after boot, that still may not be a pre-boot authentication process. That could be a boot password enabled in the BIOS. Absolutely nothing to do with encryption.

FWIW, we are currently using Dell Data Protection | Encryption (previously Credant) agent-based file encryption, and we can still enable Bitlocker.
 
Kenneth Madsen said:
I got lots of stuff on the laptop that I would need to backup and reinstall (would take almost a whole day).
Click to expand...

See, this is why your post raised all sorts of red flags (That and you are a first time poster here).... Your OP states "bought a 2nd hand PC", but your last reply states that you have lots of stuff on the laptop to backup...

What's likely is that you are either not authorized to gain access to the data on the computer or you are trying to be nosy with someone else's data. If you legitimately bought a second hand computer then you need to format and reinstall from scratch.
 
Thx for the replies and sorry not to reply more info. Not sure what to supply as new on these kinds of forums. I have installed a lot of my programs on the PC. I can get around the encryption as there is no password (just press enter). But when trying to enable bitlocker, windows tells me that it is not possible as hard drive already encrypted.

Thought I could get at least some kind of suggestions to what encryption software uses a black screen with the text "Enter password" in the top left corner (like an old DOS screen). However, if no one has any idea what encryption software this could be, so be it.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply.
 
Kenneth Madsen said:
I get a black screen with the text in the upper right corner "Enter password:"
Click to expand...

Kenneth Madsen said:
black screen with the text "Enter password" in the top left corner
Click to expand...

Even though you can't even get that information straight, there's still no information provided that tells us there even is any encryption installed.

Again, it sounds like it could be a BIOS boot password.

And I'm sure there's more than 1 FDE with PBA that has the password prompt in a corner.
 
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