Clone Dell M.2 SSD boot drive, that has Bitlocker?

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primestar31

primestar31

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My Dell Inspiron 5505 laptop from 2020 came with a 256GB 2230 m.2 ssd boot drive and Windows 10 (still running), and has Bitlocker on it. Can it be cloned to a new 1TB 2280 m.2 ssd using a USB-C enclosure for that new drive, and then that would be swapped to replace the internal 256GB drive?

I've never worked with drives that had Bitlocker, much less SSD drives. New drive I plan on buying, will be from Crucial.
 
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Most recommend disabling Bitlocker before doing the backup. Some commercial tools (AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, MiniTool Partition Wizard) claim to work without that manual step.

If you weren't provided with a Bitlocker password (much, much shame on Dell), you need to seek out a partitioning/cloning application such as those mentioned above.

 
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harshness said:
Most recommend disabling Bitlocker before doing the backup. Some commercial tools (AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, MiniTool Partition Wizard) claim to work without that manual step.

If you weren't provided with a Bitlocker password (much, much shame on Dell), you need to seek out a partitioning/cloning application such as those mentioned above.

Click to expand...
I've got my keys for both the boot and secondary drive. Do I just turn OFF BitLocker for the boot drive, or what does flipping that switch trigger? I don't want to create a disaster trying it.
 
primestar31 said:
I've got my keys for both the boot and secondary drive.
Click to expand...
Is this a secondary drive an independent mechanism or a fourth (or fifth) partition on the "boot drive"?
primestar31 said:
Do I just turn OFF BitLocker for the boot drive, or what does flipping that switch trigger? I don't want to create a disaster trying it.
Click to expand...
According to what I've read, you simply toggle it off and on. I don't imagine the encryption goes much beyond the pathways necessary to access the drive.
 
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harshness said:
Is this a secondary drive an independent mechanism or a fourth (or fifth) partition on the "boot drive"?
Click to expand...
It's a second physical m.2 ssd located in slot 2 of my laptop. It's my "D" drive for user data, it's not part of the boot drive.

Looks like Dell says that IF I flip it OFF, it'll trigger a decryption on the entire drive.

bitlockerturnoff.jpg
 
primestar31 said:
Looks like Dell says that IF I flip it OFF, it'll trigger a decryption on the entire drive.
Click to expand...
Dell also says that it can take 20-120 minutes. I'm not convinced the other solutions are going to be a whole lot faster -- just that they do it on-the-fly.

I think it comes down to how much value you place on having the drives encrypted.
 
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harshness said:
Dell also says that it can take 20-120 minutes. I'm not convinced the other solutions are going to be a whole lot faster -- just that they do it on-the-fly.

I think it comes down to how much value you place on having the drives encrypted.
Click to expand...
Well, if the drive cloning software can handle it with BitLocker turned on, I'd just as soon leave that alone to keep variables down. I've never used any cloning software with the exception of Casper, BUT, my copy of that is really old, and I'm sure it won't work right with this setup anymore.
 
I have done a lot of drive clones. Yes. If you have a bios HDD password. Disable that so that you can boot straight into the OS w/o any enter password prompts.
Bitlocker has to be disabled. It's there to keep someone who steals your pc from accessing the encrypted data.
You are free to manually copy your important stuff to another drive or networked pc.
It does require for you to know the applications you have installed and how they store information.
C:\Users\<your login name>\AppData is one to backup.
Browser logins can be backed up. There are freebie apps that will let you do that. Or in the settings > security >stored logins. Or something like that. You may get an option to export them.

But unlocking the system before you clone and then locking the cloned drive after (if you so wish to do it) will re enable the security. You really can't move money from one locked bank vault to another. Right?
 
I prefer to encrypt what needs to be encrypted rather than having that overhead of everything being encrypted slow down the machine for all time.
 
primestar31 said:
Thanks guys. Now all I have to do is come up with $85 for the ssd, and time to get it done. Hopefully it'll all go well.
Click to expand...
Did this price include a budget for a NVME USB adapter? Amazon lists a number of them for as low as $9.99.

Have you considered using your temporarily using your second M.2 slot instead of a USB adapter? I reason that it has the potential to be faster.
 
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harshness said:
Did this price include a budget for a NVME USB adapter? Amazon lists a number of them for as low as $9.99.

Have you considered using your temporarily using your second M.2 slot instead of a USB adapter? I reason that it has the potential to be faster.
Click to expand...
I already have one of those adapters, just haven't used it as of yet.

I could temp remove the present D: drive ssd, and put the new larger future C: one in there for cloning purposes. I'll do whichever way seems handiest. The D: drive also has BitLocker, so not sure what might happen IF I install another one in its place for cloning, and then swap them later. IF I remove BitLocker before cloning, does it do it on both drives automatically, or do I have to do them individually?
 
Just an FYI. Run a command prompt under Administrator and type manage-bde.exe and hit enter.
It will give a list of bitlocker options.
manage-bde -status will list your drives and status.
All of the options are listed to manage the encryption.
If your secondary drive is locked and you remove it. It stays locked. Nothing changes. It will perform as before when plugged into the exact same pc it was attached to before. Try plugging it into another pc and you won't be able to read or write to it.
There may be an instance when you try to boot to your cloning software that it won't. Assuming that you will use a bootable USB like Acronis Bootable Media. Go into the UEFI and disable security there also and save and reboot.
New drives usually come with a link to where you can download and burn a bootable USB, CD for cloning.
When you're all done just turn everything back on in UEFI and the new drive if you so please. The new cloned drive should work just fine.
That's considering the existing OS isn't tired and cluttered.
Good Luck!
 
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I was in at my local Walmart today. While browsing I happened to the computer parts section in Electronics and looked what they had. They had a few different M.2 drives in stock. I don't remember exact sizes but all there were cheaper than the one you posted from Amazon. If memory serves me, they were WD brand. Seems like they have gotten more PC stuff in stock then they used to from years past. Just a suggestion to go have a looksee, you might be surprised. Good luck!
 

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