PGP Whole Disk Encryption
Recovery Disks

Creating a Recovery Disk to Decrypt Base Hard Drive

The chances of corruption in the master boot record on an encrypted drive are low; however, if corruption were to happen, your entire system may be prevented from booting. Therefore, you need to create a recovery CD before you whole disk encrypt a drive.

It is recommended that you use Roxio Easy Creator for this process, but you may use any program that can create a CD from an ISO image.

1. Open Roxio Easy Creator and choose Create a Data CD Project.
2. Under the File menu, select Record CD from CD image.
3. At the bottom of the Hard Disk Image screen, click the Files of Type menu and select ISO Image Files.
4. Locate the PGP directory (C:\Program Files\PGP Corportation\PGP Desktop\).
5. Select bootg.uso and click Open.
6. Insert a blank CD and click Start Recording in the Record Setup window.
7. When the CD has finished burning, click OK. Be sure to label the CD appropriately and keep it in a safe place.

Using the Recovery Disk

If the WDE Login page does not appear when you restart you system, or if you are prompted for a recovery disk:

1. Insert the recovery CD you made into your computer’s CD drive.
2. Reboot the computer. The login screen for the recovery disk should appear. Enter the recovery passphrase for the encrypted drive and press Enter. The system will decrypt itself.  This operation can take MANY hours and the system should not be powered off.
3. Once the process is completed, the system should start as normal.

Note: If you do not remember the recovery passphrase, contact the AskIT Help Desk at AskIT or 6-5555 for assistance.