DE supports self-encrypting drives (SEDs), which comply with Opal standards. For a list of SEDs supported by DE, see KB81136 - Drive Encryption support for Opal drives. 

The DE Opal Hardware Compatibility Tool runs tests on a client with an Opal drive, to capture information needed to identify the drive and its capabilities. For instructions to download and run the DE Opal Hardware Compatibility Tool, see KB76182 - How to use the Opal Hardware Compatibility Tool. 

Under several circumstances, DE-compatibility failures are reported on SEDs that support Opal 2 specifications. 

This document describes known issues that can lead to these failures, and possible solutions to overcome these issues.  

IMPORTANT: Some key information about supported operating systems, DE, and Opal drives are as follows:

• Although DE supports a wide range of operating systems, the combination of DE and Opal is supported only on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and later. 
• This specific operating system support is because some Opal drives are set up as 512e drives. In other words, they’re actually drives with sectors of size 4096 bytes, but emulate earlier 512-byte sector drives. Windows 7 SP1 includes crucial driver fixes that allow the 512e drives to function correctly. 
• On systems that use Legacy BIOS, only the drives listed in the Supported Opal Drives (under Legacy BIOS) section in KB81136 - Drive Encryption support for Opal drives are supported. 
• On systems that use UEFI, you can use any Opal drive supported by the platform firmware. But only if the platform supports the security protocol EFI_STORAGE_SECURITY_COMMAND_PROTOCOL. We officially support all drives listed in KB81136 - Drive Encryption support for Opal drives. 
• If DE detects an incompatible or unsupported combination of an operating system and Opal drive, it continues the activation process. But, it uses software encryption instead of using the native Opal function. 

Opal support with a UEFI boot process 
Systems that run SATA Opal solid-state drives (SSDs) must also have the SATA mode configured to use the Advance Host Controller Interface (AHCI). 

WARNING: You might need to reinstall the operating system. Some operating systems, notably Windows Vista and later, might not configure themselves to load the AHCI driver on boot. The AHCI driver isn’t loaded if the SATA-drive controller isn’t in AHCI mode at the time of installation. This fact might cause failure to boot, with an error message, if the SATA controller is later switched to the AHCI mode. For this reason, the Development team recommends that you change the drive controller to AHCI before you install an operating system. 

RAID support
There are two types of RAID technologies to consider: computers with hardware or software RAID. 

• DE is untested with hardware RAID. But, we expect DE to work properly in environments where pure hardware RAID is implemented. This expectation covers systems that have internal RAID cards or external RAID systems with a built-in controller.
  
  NOTE: DE/DETech can't support diagnostic or disaster recovery for a broken RAID configuration when hardware RAID is in use. 
   
• DE/DETech doesn’t support software-based RAID. Windows dynamic disks are a form of software RAID. 

SED Block SID Authentication  
Many storage device manufacturers now support TCG Storage Feature Set: Block SID Authentication on their SEDs. It’s observed on many devices that disabling this feature in the BIOS menu allows DE to successfully encrypt the device.  

On Dell systems:
NOTE: See the "Disable" section of the Dell article Pre-Boot Authentication Will Not Activate Due to SED Block SID Authentication Enabled. 

1. Boot into the BIOS system setup. 
2. Expand Security and then click HDD Security. 
3. Clear SED Block SID Authentication and PPI Bypass for SED Block SID Command. 
4. Choose Apply, and click Exit. 

On HP:    

1. Boot into the BIOS system setup. 
2. Expand Security, and click Hard Drive Utilities. 
3. Select Allow OPAL Hard Drive SID Authentication. 
4. Choose Apply, and click Exit. 

Disable BitLocker automatic device encryption 

See this Microsoft article for details.

To disable BitLocker automatic device encryption, use one of the following methods:

• Set the Unattend file and set PreventDeviceEncryption option to True.
• Update this registry key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BitLocker Value: PreventDeviceEncryption equal to True (1). 

NOTE: BitLocker activates automatically on a fresh installation of Windows 10. For details, see KB90524 - BitLocker activates automatically on a fresh installation of Windows 10 version 1803.