What to Do If BitLocker Is off Can’t Enable?

How can you solve “BitLocker is off and can’t enable” problem? And what can you do if you see the error “BitLocker could not be enabled”? Don’t worry, read this guide, you can easily solve the problem.

Posted by @Lucas August 19, 2024 Updated By @Lucas August 19, 2024

What is BitLocker encryption?

By using BitLocker Drive Encryption, users can effectively safeguard their data and minimize the chances of data theft or exposure. To ensure that users' computers are adequately safeguarded, BitLocker and TPM frequently function in conjunction.

To enable BitLocker on your PC, it is essential to partition your hard drive into a minimum of two drives. The boot drive should include the operating system and its support files, while the system drive needs to have the necessary files to load Windows once the firmware has prepared the system hardware.

To use BitLocker, your PC must also meet the following criteria:

1. The encryption of the system drive is prohibited.

2. The system drive must be a minimum of 350 MB in size.

3. The partition that is encrypted cannot be designated as an active partition.

How to fix “BitLocker is off can’t enable”

If you find you can’t BitLocker encrypt your drive, based on the requirements of BitLocker, we can try the following methods at first.

Method 1. Turn on the automatic BitLocker drive encryption service

The Windows operating system includes BitLocker, which functions as a service that runs in the background. In some instances, the operating system can encounter a delay in the process of beginning this service, which would then lead to the problems that were previously described. Make sure that the BitLocker Drive Encryption Service starts up automatically in order to address the issue. This is an essential step in the process.

Step 1. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run command and type in services.msc to launch Windows Services.

Step 2. Locate the BitLocker Drive Encryption Service, right-click it, and select Properties.

Step 3. Change the service's startup type to Automatic, hit Apply, then OK.

Method 2. Inactive the target partition

Step 1. Open Disk Management to determine the correct drive number.

Step 2. Launch Diskpart, a simple Windows search should work. Type the following to remove the active flag on the partition:

list disk

select disk 1

select partition 1

inactive

Now you can try to BitLocker encrypt your drive.

Method 3. Extend partition to reach BitLocker requirement

If you can’t enable BitLocker on your drive because its space size doesn’t reach the BitLocker requirement, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to extend the system partition. This powerful tool can directly add unused space from one partition to another partition, like from D partition to system partition. And it supports all Windows 11/10/8/7 systems.

Free Download Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

100% Secure

Step 1. Install and run the software. On the home interface, right-click the partition that has enough space and choose “Allocate Free Space”.

Step 2. In the pop-up window, determine the size of free space that you want to reallocate from partition D and this free space will be added to the target partition. Here I choose C: as the destination partition.

Step 3. Go back to the main interface where you can preview the operation result. In the following screenshot, you can realize that C drive will be extended and D drive will be shrunk. Then, click “Apply” and “Proceed” to commit the operation.

Notes:

The operation needs to be performed under PreOS mode as it involves system partition.
You can add non-contiguous unallocated space into system partition via AOMEI Partition Assistant.
To manage hard drives partition under Windows Server 2019/2016/2012 (R2)/2008 (R2), AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is helpful!

Method 4. Try third-party tool to enable BitLocker encryption

If you still can’t enable BitLocker on your drive, another solution to turn it on is to try third-party tool. Besides partition extend function, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional also has “BitLocker” function to help users to protect their privacy. For Windows Home users, since Windows Home system can’t use BitLocker encryption, this handy tool will help you use this feature for your drive. For other Windows system users, if the BitLocker function on your computer has any problem, this convenient tool can offer you one more choice to manage your BitLocker partitions.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click the "Tools" main tab and select "BitLocker".

Or, right-click the partition you want to encrypt and click the "BitLocker"->"Turn on BitLocker" option in the Context Menu.

Step 2. All drives on the system will be displayed, including operating system drives, fixed data drives, and removable drives. Please find the partition you would like to encrypt BitLocker and click the "Turn on BitLocker" option. (Here, we take the drive D: as an example.)

Tip: Currently, it only supports encrypting NTFS partitions. Other partition file systems, for example, FAT or FAT32 cannot be encrypted.

Step 3. Please set and confirm a password to encrypt the drive and click "Next".

Step 4. Select a way to back up your recovery key. You can either select "Save to a file" or "Print the recovery key".

If you select "Save to a file", please choose a location on your PC to save the recovery key.

Tip: Please do not save the recovery key in the encrypted drive path. For example, it is unable to encrypt D: and save the recovery key on the same D: drive.

It will generate a TXT file with the name: Bitlocker Recovery Key + 45-bit Key. The recovery file will be saved in the TXT file. You can open the file to view the recovery key. Please keep the file. Then, please click the "Next" button to start the encryption process.

If you would like to encrypt your current system drive, you will be asked to restart your PC into Windows PE mode to execute the operation because it is the current system drive. The program will first create Windows PE and then boot the PC into Windows PE mode to encrypt the drive. After the encryption is finished, you can restart your PC.

Tip: AOMEI Partition Assistant will automatically detect whether your system has installed Windows AIK/ADK or not. If yes, it will start the Windows PE creation and then enter into WinPE to encrypt the drive. If not, please download and install Windows AIK/ADK first.

Step 5. The encryption process might take time to encrypt the drive. Before the process is finished, please do not terminate the program, remove the drive, or turn off the power.

Once the encryption process is finished, please click "Completed". Finally, the drive is BitLocker encrypted.

Conclusion

Some users find BitLocker is off and can't enable might become worried about it. Well, this post shows you how to solve this issue with 4 solutions and detailed steps. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can extend system drive space and also as a BitLocker manager, it can turn it on and off for your drive when Windows tools can't resolve the issue.

And if you can't turn on BitLocker on a Windows Server, the Server edition of this handy tool (supports Windows Server 2022/2019/2016/2012) will also help you fix the problem.