How to enable Security (Activated, TCG Opal 2.0/eDrive) on WD SSD Dashboard?

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Hi there!

I’ve just bought a new WD SSD, the WD Black SN750 NVMe. I installed it on a Windows Dell laptop, installed the WD SSD Dashboard, and turned on BitLocker encryption on my hard drive.

I thought that by turning BitLocker encryption on the SSD, the status for Security on the WD Dashboard application would change from “Not Activated” to “Activated”, but in my case it still shows as not activated.

Are there any additional steps that need to be done so the Dashboard will recognize the BitLocker encryption?

Thanks!

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Interesting question - I’ve got a WD Black 1TB WDS100T2X0C , same story. I think perhaps my drive doesn’t support OPAL. I’ve looked at the spec sheets and in the WD SSD Dashboard, and although I see some cryptographic related Drive Details, I just don’t see that it’s supported. Bummer! I found this review that states another WD Black does not support OPAL or eDrive encryption. I wonder what the bitlocker software overhead is doing to my IO speeds…WD Black PCIe NVMe SSD Review (512GB) - Does It Live Up To Its Lineage? | The SSD Review .

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to activate bit locker hardware encryption, you have to do this steps:

  1. ENABLE the feature using wd utility on the ssd. this is windows based application so if you don’t have one, you need to install windows on the ssd but you will need to fresh install again in step 2
  2. fresh install windows on the ssd. installation mode must be UEFI non CSM.
    a. installation media must also created for this method. use Rufus to burn windows iso file to USB flash disk. you must choose GPT and UEFI non CSM in Rufus.
    b. UEFI config must be set in the BIOS before the installation.
  3. my experience was with Samsung sata ssd: driver must use Microsoft generic sata driver, don’t change to Intel rst driver or etc. i don’t know for nvme, but please try keep Microsoft nvme driver first.
  4. activate bitlocker for C drive. this process SHOULD NOT give you option to select full or partial encryption.
    a. after reboot check using command line: manage-bde -status. it should report hardware encryption and unlocked status.
  5. you can try update the nvme driver with wd driver. recheck the manage-bde status. if it no longer report hardware encryption and unlocked, revert to Microsoft driver then reboot then recheck the status again