Accessing BitLocker To Go encrypted drives on Windows XP and Vista


Windows 7 introduced BitLocker which encrypts an entire drive so the files on it can only be accessed with the correct credentials, e.g. a password. Microsoft created BitLocker To Go so that the files on an encrypted drive could also be accessed with Windows Vista. However, on Vista the files are read-only and the drive cannot be accessed from Windows File Explorer, i.e. it doesn't appear as a normal drive or even a Windows File Explorer shell extension. Therefore, when using Windows Vista to access files on a BitLocker encrypted drive you cannot use any version of SyncBack to access the files. Only the BitLocker To Go software can be used to access the files.

If you wish to encrypt entire drives (or partitions), and are using Vista or older, then an alternative to BitLocker is VeraCrypt
https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html