Forum Discussion
JacquelineSom
Dec 28, 2025Iron Contributor
A few queries about Windows home drive encryption and imaging with Macrium
01. Can I successfully image my encrypted system drive with a Macrium boot disk? 02. Will the image created be encrypted or not? 03. If i unlock the system drive and image it will the image be ...
Gabrielasip
Dec 29, 2025Bronze Contributor
The image will be unencrypted unless you specifically take measures to encrypt the image file itself. By default, Macrium creates a raw disk image, which is just a binary copy of the drive contents. If the source drive is encrypted and unlocked during imaging, the image will contain the plaintext data (since the encryption is transparent once unlocked). If the drive is still encrypted and locked, Macrium won't be able to access the data, and the image will be essentially a blank or corrupted image.