WD My Passport Hardware Encrypted USB Drive

[Jim.Carpenter]

Using SmartDeply Enterprise, is it possible to use a WD My Passport Hardware Encrypted USB (2TB) Drive as the image source? In other words, I create a bootable SmartDeploy DVD, boot up the laptop with the DVD, and then use the encrypted USB Drive as the image source to load a Win7 image. The USB drive will want the password to hardware decrypted the data. Is this possible with the SmartDeploy process?

I am a noob to the SmartDeploy process, and before I head down this rabbit hole, perhaps I can get some general advice whether others have tried this.

Thanks in Advance - Jim

[SmartDeploySupport]

Hi Jim,

Hardware encryption is tricky, but this might be possible, with a few dependencies. If Western Digital's hardware encryption can be decrypted via a Windows PE command line, then you can include any required WD utilities in your SmartDeploy media by putting them in a folder, and adding this folder under "Optional files" in the Media Wizard.

Then you would need to boot to your SmartDeploy media, press Shift-F10 to open a WinPE command line, and initiate hardware decryption via the command line. If it is a complex command, we would recommend typing it out in a batch (.bat) file in advance (e.g. "Decrypt.bat") for ease of typing at deployment time. Once decryption is complete, you can close the Command Line, and click "Deploy an Image" to complete the process as normal. From the "Select an image" page, you would point to the newly decrypted external drive. You would also likely need to open the Advanced options, and browse to the location for the Platform Pack.

I'm afraid we can't guarantee that this process will work, as we haven't tested in-house with WD hardware encrypted drives. But you should be able to download the SmartDeploy trial and test the approach above to make sure it functions as described.

Note that SmartDeploy media can be automated through the use of Answer Files. For the setup described above, you would likely not be able to use an unattended installation, as this would skip past any opportunity to execute a command line task before the Deploy Wizard begins. However, you can use an Answer File for an attended installation that will pre-populate any option that exists in the Deploy Wizard, including the file locations for your image and driver packs. You can also add manual command-line tasks to occur at any stage in deployment. For more information about the Deploy Wizard advanced options and the use of Answer Files, take a look at Appendices 3-4 in the SmartDeploy User's Guide, available here.

Feel free to reach out at support@smartdeploy.com if you have any questions - and if you're interested in seeing a live, end-to-end demo of SmartDeploy, just go to SmartDeploy.com and click on "Live Demo" to sign up. We're conducting one tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10AM Pacific time, so you can see the process and ask any additional questions live if you're interested.

Regards,

SmartDeploy Support
support@smartdeploy.com
1-888-7DEPLOY