After installing Full Disk Encryption (FDE) on a machine with compatible self-encrypting drives (SED), you encounter hibernation, sleep, and standby issues such as the following:
- Sleep button in the Start menu is grayed out.
- After hibernating automatically, the computer could not wake up and only a hard reboot will get the system running again.
- Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
The issue occurs because the sleep/standby support (S3) mode in an SED is not supported by Endpoint Encryption FDE hardware due to product limitations.
S3 mode allows a machine to securely go to sleep or standby mode, and requires pre-Windows authentication when the computer resumes. However, drive encryption passwords are subject to any existing BIOS password limitation. Consult your system hardware manufacturer for more information on BIOS password limitations in your system.
When using self-encrypting drives according the OPAL standard under Windows 7, resume from S3 sleep mode will lead to a blue screen. Disable the S3 mode when using OPAL drives on Windows 7.
If the machine is using Self-Encrypting Disk (SED), Full Disk Encryption will remove the sleep option because resuming from S3 (Sleep) does not work in SED under Windows 7/10 operating systems.
