I have a 3 TB external hard drive that I want to encrypt with BitLocker. I have chosen a strong password as my unlock method. TPM is not used.
Can I pause BitLocker's ongoing encryption so I can temporarily unplug the external hard drive? Will the encryption continue when I reconnect it?
Best Answer
While the computer is busy encrypting the drive, you can temporarily pause the Encryption. Open an Administrative command prompt and issue the following command:
where X: is the drive-letter being Encrypted.
You can resume the Encryption process with the following command:
This can be done for both Encryption and Decryption.
See Microsoft documentation at manage-bde: pause.