Imaging software that supports Bitlocker encryption

Are there imaging software that keeps Bitlocker encryption intact when restoring the entire drive? I tried Hasleo Backup Suite and when I restore the entire drive it restores in unencrypted format and leaves Bitlocker disabled? When I turn device encryption back on when it was automatically turned on after a clean install of Windows 11 24H2 it starts the encryption progress from the beginning and generates a new recovery key and saves it to the Microsoft account. The encryption process is slow and can take a long time even on Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD.

I can only give my experiences of using Macrium with Bitlocker and say that although this was one of my original concerns that in practice there is no issue. I make backups (full along with incremental or differential) and have zero issues with restores. Restores are done from within Windows (no external bootable media needed) and complete in about 4 minutes. Bitlocker is restored intact with no change in keys.

(the process of backing up does trigger a warning that the backup file itself is unencrypted (and so a security issue) and that you can use Macriums own encryption to overcome that)

Keith Weisshar said:

Are there imaging software that keeps Bitlocker encryption intact when restoring the entire drive? I tried Hasleo Backup Suite and when I restore the entire drive it restores in unencrypted format and leaves Bitlocker disabled? When I turn device encryption back on when it was automatically turned on after a clean install of Windows 11 24H2 it starts the encryption progress from the beginning and generates a new recovery key and saves it to the Microsoft account. The encryption process is slow and can take a long time even on Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD.

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Look on Hasleo's web site for documentation on restoring to Bitlockered systems. They might have a document like this one for Terabyte's Image For Windows, which I use:


Very briefly, I save unencrypted images from inside Windows (VSS option enabled, of course) to another Bitlockered drive. When I want to restore my Windows partition, I suspend Bitlocker and boot into Terabyte's WinRE recovery media. There, I use Image for Windows to restore the Windows partition, and it's encrypted on the fly as it's restored. Suspending Bitlocker relieves one from having to deal with manage-bde from within the recovery environment.

Keith Weisshar said:

Are there imaging software that keeps Bitlocker encryption intact when restoring the entire drive? I tried Hasleo Backup Suite and when I restore the entire drive it restores in unencrypted format and leaves Bitlocker disabled? When I turn device encryption back on when it was automatically turned on after a clean install of Windows 11 24H2 it starts the encryption progress from the beginning and generates a new recovery key and saves it to the Microsoft account. The encryption process is slow and can take a long time even on Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD.

Click to expand...

Macrium Reflect (even free version) does this.