A strange bit locker issue

Question

A strange bit locker issue

Anonymous

Dear All,

We have been using the Microsoft Surface Book since 2018 for our home.

A week before, I used my friend's USB to read some books, and a couple of days later, I just switched on our Surface book in the very usual way, Unfortunately, it says Enter the Bit Locker Key.

The challenge is we have never set the Bitlocker key anytime. So, it is not available in my Microsoft Account > Device. The past few days I have tried so many other options, nevertheless, nothing obtains well.

Could anybody please assist me here, I don't want to lose my existing drive files? I have my kids' photos over there, unfortunately, I have no other back up.

Looking forward for the solution :)

Thanks and Regards,

Suva

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

5 answers

Answer 1

Hello Suvasini,

Thanks for reaching Microsoft Community. We're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.

In this case, please restart your device at least once, and perform these steps:

On the initial recovery screen, don't enter your recovery key, instead, select Skip this drive.
Navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options, and select Command prompt.
From the WinRE command prompt, manually unlock your drive: manage-bde.exe -unlock C: -rp <recovery password>
Suspend operating system drive protection: manage-bde.exe -protectors -disable C:
Once the last command is run, you can exit the command prompt and continue to boot into your operating system.

I hope this helps. Otherwise, don't hesitate to respond to this thread if there’s anything else that needs to be addressed.

Best regards,

StevenK

Answer 2

Anonymous

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our last response. We would like to know if you still need assistance with your concern. If yes, kindly reply back so we can further assist you.

Hope to hear from you.

Answer 3

Anonymous

We still have not received any response from you in the last 72 hours. Please feel free to create a new thread if you have different and new concerns.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Answer 4

Hello Steven,

Very sorry for my late reply. Thanks a lot for your spontaneous assistance. I have tried both of your suggested options, but it's not helping. I've got the following results:

manage-bde.exe -unlock C: -rp <recovery password>

An error occurred while attempting to read the key from the disk

manage-bde.exe -protectors -disable C:

The operation cannot be performed because the volume is locked.

While I run the command manage-bde -status, I get the following details

Volume C

Size: Unknown GB

Bitlocker Version : 2.0

Conversion Status : Unknown

Percentage Encrpted : Unknown%

Encryption Method : XTS-AES 128

Protection Status : Unknown

Lock Status : Locked

Identification Field : Unknown

Automatic Unlock : Disabled

Key Protectors:

Numerical Password

TPM

Perhaps this help you with further assistance.

Looking foward,

Many Thanks.

Suva

Answer 5

basically you need to replace the words recovery password with your recovery password, which you most likely do not have since recovery passwords have to be manually created (as opposed to recovery keys that are auto-generated). I don't know why Steven assumed you would have created a recovery password.

You are really in a bad situation, as your drive is locked and you don't have the recovery key. Unfortunately, you need to wipe and reimage the drive as Marrion suggested in the other thread you created - Bit Locker Issue - The windows locked - Microsoft Community - And when prompted for the Bitlocker Recovery Key, you must select Skip this Drive.

manage-bde.exe -unlock C: -rp <recovery password>

An error occurred while attempting to read the key from the disk

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A strange bit locker issue

5 answers