BCD Boot troubles and WinMagic encryption

by Tom

I’ve got a notebook to repair – HP ProBook, where Windows boot ended up with an error message – something about BCD. Tried to repair with standard tools, like recovery DVD, but without any success.

It was because main partition with OS was encrypted with WinMagic. So, now what?

Got some tools and info from local HP service, so you need to find our or get:

  • SDWinPEx64.iso
  • SDWmgRecovery package
  • encryption key or password (key is better)

So, now steps how to fix it:

  1. create bootable USB/DVD media with WinPE
  2. unpack and store SDWmgRecovery somewhere (USB flash)
  3. copy key to the same place
  4. boot with WinPE (takes a while, be patient)
  5. first of all, run TB Launcher/SD Recovery
  6. expand your hdd with all the partition and check Lock column
  7. select those with Lock as true (one by one)
  8. click Unlock and enter your password or open a key
  9. back to TB Launcher, open a file manager to check which disk letter belongs to Windows (eg. “d:”)
  10. open Console
  11. type bootsect /nt60 c: /force /mbr
  12. type bcdboot d:\windows /s c:
  13. reboot

It should be working fine now. :-)

18 thoughts on “BCD Boot troubles and WinMagic encryption”

  1. Hello. I have the same trouble with boot on HP notebook with encrypted by winmagic HDD.
    It’s took too long to get answer from hp support, and whan i get call today from local HP support< they say me that get instruction from engineers from India< but links in email from them was broken. I just need SDWmgRecovery package. Changing boot BCD from backup doesn't help me. Windows still not boot. Can you assist and put somewhere on dropbox or other place image of SDWmgRecovery. I have too much documents on HDD, that I need to work, and almost 2 week I cann't get them.
    Thanks.
    my mail: it{at}np-os.ru

  3. hey Jerome,

    thanks for your comment. I was facing a bit different error message, so after various tries this was working just fine – and all partitions were encrypted, so no way how to access the dist even from another computer.

  4. Hi Tom!

    I have a ProBook as well, and yesterday I got in boot trouble because of WinMagic encryption. So basically I’m facing the same problem as you did, and I was wondering if you still have that SDWinPEx64.iso and SDWmgRecovery package?

    I would be very happy to fix my laptop and maybe, just maybe, get at least some of my files back.

    Thanks in advance,

    Kaspars

  5. Hello.

    Thanks for a nice post, Tom.

    It is always wise to update all the software to their latest released versions, just like previously linked by jerome HP advisory confirms.

    My friend just experienced a problem with BCD and WinMagic on a ProBook 450 G2 and came to me asking for 2 small very important files to be recovered. I didn’t contacted HP service yet because it’s already late evening now but I doubt they will help in my case as the warranty expired 2 months ago.

    I’ve glanced on the disk with basic command-line utilities from Win7 installation CD that my friend brought with the laptop and it seems that the boot volume does not include hidden files of BCD or BCD.Backup.0001 and is basically different than standard Windows boot partition or described in the HP advisory.

    I don’t have Windows OS available on my computers to prepare WinPE at the moment but will try some shuffles with Win7 installation disk and *nixes in a hope to get the job done.

    http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/Disable-HP-drive-encryption-on-boot/m-p/5431007/highlight/true#M120199 <= this comment posted on HP forums on 2016-01-05 shares a link to ftp://hpstore1:mb*DV6st@a1.usa.hp.com/c04347463.zip (207.2 MiB, accessed just now, archive password: hp7463, use at own risk!). The archive includes the following files: http://paste.debian.net/plain/365884

    Related links:
    – HP advisory mentioned by jerome: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04677911&sp4ts.oid=5405376
    – HP employee's Instruction from the thread http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/Encrypted-ProBook-450-G2-won-t-boot-BCD-error/m-p/5047623/highlight/true#M137693 : http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/attachments/psg/General/137693/1/WinmagicInstructions.docx (2.4 MiB)

    Good luck me and everyone interested in repairing the system instead of just installing it from scratch! :-)

  6. It seems that Windows made a BCD backup and its restoration resolve the problem in seconds. Cheers.

  7. I just solved this on my Probook 450 G1 thanks to the info here.

    I downloaded the c04347463.zip file and followed the instructions. I had to relink the WMG file to the encrypted drive as well as doing the BCD stuff. The only issue I had was that the instructions refer to a “WinMagicSECURDOC.WMG” file being in the root of a partition on the encrypted disk, however my file was called “SECURDOC.999” and was in a “Winmagic” folder on the disk. Perhaps this is because I am using a slightly different version of WinMagic.

    I hope the above helps someone anyway.

  9. I have the winpe bootable from HP and started following instructions at http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04677911&sp4ts.oid=5405376 to create a fresh BCD file. Not sure if that played into making it work.

    Booting into the winpe I used the sdrecovery tool to unlock the encrypted volume since I already had the username and password, then used the first of the two commands listed in this post on the relevant drive. This is what it took to make the volume readable by me. All the incredibly important files I had are now saved and able to be copied!

  10. Hello
    I have my personal USB that I put into my customers laptop that I just Imaged for them and it said starting to encrypt and I pulled it out – it said 0% encrypted but when I put the USB in another computer or that same one I says I need to format it – I booted with the securedoc recovery 3.0 it sees the disk and in the process of encrypting but I don’t know how to get my data off of it. Any ideas?

  11. Hi,

    does anyone have SDWinPEx64.iso and SDWmgRecovery package? Impossible to find working link and HP support doesn’t reply yet.

    Thanks, Rudolf

  13. It worked. I’ve been prepared to install it from scratch. This helped me a lot.

    Thank you very much Tom

  14. Hi, when i run the command SDWmgRecovery.exe -w “I:\WinMagic\SECURDOC.999” -f return message “Failed to find disk 2”

    Please help

  15. I have a similar problem with a Lenovo 710. A former employer installed SecureDoc. I have the password still. It worked fine, then I updated the BIOS because of a Lenovo recommendation. After the flash, the machine started but landed on a windows repair page, where no options worked. It bypassed the SD logon, probably because of the BIOS upgrade. I tried a legacy setting, got a DOS-type logon for SD, but then got only a black screen with a blinking cursor. Got no help from WinMagic or Lenovo on this. Lenovo support suggested I do a factory reset, but I don’t think that would work because of the encryption. Any ideas? Would this procedure (for the HP) work for me?

  16. Hi Tom,
    I can see the drive that is encrupted,but the bottom of “unlock” is unable. The status of the drive C is encrypted.
    Do you have any idea?
    thank you

  18. Hi Everyone

    Hope someone can help

    While encrypting the drive the laptop ran out of battery and shut off, after that I can no longer get in to it, when boots up I get the first screen to enter the password or key, I put both but get same result “Unable to Unlock media. Please try logging again after the system re-starts”

    I created the USB with the necessary software TB Launcher/SD Recovery, boot i to it and so the partition that is locked, I am able to unlock it but even though the partion has a letter there is no content on it

    When I try to run a chkdsk on the drive via cmd, get an error saying the partion is a raw partition, also under the status f the partition it says is encrypting

    Any Ideas, just need to get in to it to recover some files

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