Saturday, April 27, 2013

Boot error with PGP and certain laptops running Windows 7

Problem

  • Installed PGP WDE 10.1.1 (or earlier) on Windows machine and after reboot, boot hangs with "Initializing loading" and Windows fails to load
  • This message appears on screen: "Loading password authentication driver loading stage2. PGPWDE disk data are corrupted. Please use PGP recovery disk."
  • Issue occurs with some newer generation laptops and desktops from Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Samsung running Windows 7 64-bit.

Cause

According to Symantec (product owner of PGP), this issue was triggered by an incompatibility in the memory allocation code in their pre-boot in PGP Desktop (versions 10.1.x). Other indicators point to a problem with Optimus in the BIOS. Symantec has identified this issue on multiple systems and has a solution available (see below).

Solution

Use the recovery tool (a CD ISO image) provided by Symantec for diagnostic purposes.
The recovery tool can be used to test hardware prior to deployment of the product if you suspect that new hardware could be affected by this issue.
NOTE: Symantec released a service pack (PGP Desktop version 10.1.2 SP2) with the fix for this issue that customers can install on their new hardware. 
Some feedback posted on forums as well as received by IS&T indicate that installing PGP Desktop version 10.1.2 SP2 might not solve the problem.

Workaround

If you need to have the drive encrypted and are still experiencing the boot error, you can boot off the recovery CD in the meantime.

Instructions by Symantec on verifying the fix 

After burning the ISO to a CD, please follow the instructions for the current state of the system (not encrypted or encrypted) for verification:
On a hard disk that is not encrypted:
  • Boot an affected laptop with the newly created recovery CD. The PGP BootGuard screen is shown displaying PGP Recovery Disk Press any key to search for PGP WDE installation.
On a hard disk that is encrypted:
  • Boot an affected laptop with the newly created recovery CD. The PGP BootGuard screen is shown displaying PGP Recovery Disk Press any key to continue..
If either of these screens appears, this indicates that the fix we have applied will work on your system. You can enter the correct passphrase and press any key other than "D" to boot into Windows. After that you can decrypt the disk from the PGP Desktop UI. If you want to keep the laptop encrypted before you receive the official patch release, you will need to use the recovery CD every time you reboot your laptop.
If a screen is not displayed, the fix has not resolved the issue with your system.
Please provide both successful or unsuccessful results back to Symantec support with information about the make and model of the system you tested with.

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