Safe Start is a mechanism where ESET Endpoint Encryption (EEE) will try to install the Full Disk Encryption mbr bootloader and use it to boot into Windows. It does this without performing any encryption of the disk.

The purpose of this is to ensure the machine is fully supported and will allow encryption with EEE Full Disk Encryption. A machine might not be compatible with Full Disk Encryption utilities (EEE, or any other tool) for a number of reasons, but these could include different disk controller types including RAID, or any 3rd party drivers that may be installed.

If the machine is not compatible it fails to boot, Safe Start will attempt to automatically repair the problem and a subsequent reboot will boot the PC normally back into Windows. If for an exceptional reason Safe Start cannot automatically repair, the machine can be simply restored using the system repair, because the machine will not be encrypted.

Only if Safe Start detects no problems, and the machine can boot successfully into Windows, will the actual encryption operation proceed.

This guarantees the safety of your machine and any data on it because we only proceed with Full Disk Encryption once we know your machine can be safely started with the EEE bootloader.

Please note: Safe Start is available in client install v4.6.9 onwards and DESlock Enterprise Server v2.4.23 / ESET Endpoint Encryption Server v3.0 onwards.

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Keywords: safestart, safe, start, fde, raid