Windows 10: How to Unlock My BitLocker-Encrypted Disk

Recently, I purchased a new Mac mini M4. It's a great machine and I really like it. So, I happily sold my Windows computer that I had used for over a decade and only kept a few disks with important data. After installing the necessary software on the Mac mini, I put the original Windows disk in an external hard drive enclosure and connected it to my Mac, but it couldn't be recognized. After going through a lot of trouble and searching for various reasons, I finally found out that my disk was encrypted by BitLocker on the original computer and I forgot to decrypt it before taking it out.Now, I

:)

 

External USB HDD drive bitlocker encrypted without a key

Hello CatchyWater7200,

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

I am aware that you're having trouble accessing your external USB disk drive that has been encrypted by BitLocker. I am here to help. Allow me to ask a question.

• Would you mind sharing what exactly the message shows when ask for the USB key?
  

Your drive appears to have been encrypted using BitLocker, a function that guards your data against illegal access. For access to the drive, BitLocker requires a password or recovery key. Since you don't have a BitLocker USB key, you can try using the BitLocker recovery key to unlock the drive. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Connect the external USB disk drive to your Surface Pro 6.
   
2. When prompted to enter the BitLocker key, click on "More options". Or you can enter "Esc" key or the Windows key to continue.
   
3. Click on "Enter recovery key".
   
4. Enter the BitLocker recovery key that you found on your Microsoft account.
   
5. Click on "Unlock".
   

If the above steps don't work, you can try disabling BitLocker on the external USB disk drive. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Connect the external USB disk drive to your Surface Pro 6.
   
2. Open File Explorer and right-click on the external USB disk drive.
   
3. Click on "Manage BitLocker".
   
4. Click on "Turn off BitLocker".
   
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to disable BitLocker on the external USB disk drive.
   

Please note that disabling BitLocker will remove the encryption from the external USB disk drive and make it less secure. Therefore, it's recommended to re-enable BitLocker once you've accessed your files and photos.

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Lavenia

 

Failure to unlock BitLocker encrypted HD after new windows 10 installation

Hello Kostas,

Thank you for bringing up your query on Microsoft Community.

We sincerely regret for the inconvenience caused.

You can use BitLocker Drive Encryption to help protect your
operating system drive (the drive where Windows is installed), a
fixed data drive (such as an internal hard drive), or a
removable data drive (such as a USB flash drive).

The way you unlock an encrypted drive depends on two things:

• What kind of drive it is.
• What kind of unlock method you chose when you set up BitLocker on the drive.
  

I suggest you to refer to the following article and check if it helps.

Unlock a BitLocker-protected drive

Windows help and learning

(Applies to Windows 10 as well).

Hope it helps.

Let us know the status, we are glad to assist you further.

 

HELP: Automatic BitLocker Unlock.

Thank you sir, ill try your solution.

Windows Auto unlock ONLY works in case you have Bitlocker on your system drive, because if your system drive is not encrypted auto unlocking other drives means loss of security.
But in my case my system drive is Encrypted with hardware encryption that i password unlock during boot. So auto unlocking Bitlocker drives will do fine for me.