Bookmem Posted March 14 Posted March 14 I have never used bitlocker. But after reinstalling windows 11, all four partitions on my 12tb drive are locked and because I didn't lock them, I don't have a key!!!!! Quote
abarbarian Posted March 15 Posted March 15 10 hours ago, Bookmem said: I have never used bitlocker. But after reinstalling windows 11, all four partitions on my 12tb drive are locked and because I didn't lock them, I don't have a key!!!!! That sounds pretty horrendous. Hope you manage to get it sorted. Quote
Bookmem Posted March 15 Author Posted March 15 9 hours ago, abarbarian said: That sounds pretty horrendous. Hope you manage to get it sorted. I've got everything of importance backed up elsewhere, but restoring it all is going to be a real PITA. My main concern is how it happened in the first place. How can reinstalling Windows on another drive, cause the drive to be encrypted without my even knowing it? And how could an app like bitlocker lock a drive without my first entering a password? Now bit locker isn't even asking for a password, it wants a 48 digit key!!!! Quote
abarbarian Posted March 15 Posted March 15 37 minutes ago, Bookmem said: How can reinstalling Windows on another drive, cause the drive to be encrypted without my even knowing it? It is probably the same special Microsoft software that borked my Windows 7 several times after installing official updates. Probably meant to keep us on our toes or to stop boredom creeping in. Quote
goretsky Posted March 16 Posted March 16 (edited) Hello, If you cannot find the BitLocker recovery keys at https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey, then try disabling BitLocker for the drives after you have logged into the system by opening an elevated PowerShell (filename: Powershell.exe) or Command Prompt (filename: CMD.EXE) and issuing a manage-bde -off X: where you replace replace X: with the letter of a drive that is encrypted with BitLocker. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Edited March 16 by goretsky fixed a formatting issue 1 1 Quote
xrobwx71 Posted March 16 Posted March 16 21 hours ago, Bookmem said: My main concern is how it happened in the first place https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220138/microsoft-bitlocker-device-encryption-windows-11-default 1 1 Quote
Bookmem Posted March 17 Author Posted March 17 (edited) 12 hours ago, xrobwx71 said: https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220138/microsoft-bitlocker-device-encryption-windows-11-default How are you supposed to access the locked drives? edit: Never mind. I found the keys in my MS account. Thanks for the help Edited March 17 by Bookmem 3 Quote
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