A Seagate 28 TB external drive failed, so I sent it in for data recovery. The recovered data—mostly music—was returned on the drive, and the company encrypted the return media with BitLocker for privacy. They provided an encryption key by email.
Windows 10 Pro detects the disk in Disk Management, but it does not appear in File Explorer because no drive letter is assigned. However, I cannot assign one: the right-click menu only offers options such as converting to a dynamic disk, taking the disk offline, viewing properties, and opening help. Windows also never displays a BitLocker password prompt when I connect the drive.
I have tried several command-line instructions, but none worked. What should I check or try to make Windows recognize and unlock the recovered drive without risking the data?
2 Answers
The supplied key may need to be used as a BitLocker password or recovery key through BitLocker management tools rather than waiting for an automatic prompt. Since Disk Management is not offering normal volume actions and the recovered data may be the only copy, avoid initializing, formatting, converting, or repairing the disk. If the key does not unlock it, contact the recovery service and ask which BitLocker method and key type they used for that specific return drive.
The encryption is probably intentional rather than something that happened accidentally. Data-recovery services commonly return recovered files on an encrypted drive to protect customer privacy, and the access key is supplied separately. The fact that the original drive was not encrypted does not prevent the recovery company from encrypting the replacement media before shipping it back.
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