I recently switched from Windows 11 to Ubuntu 24.04, but I didn't realize all my drives were encrypted with BitLocker. During the Ubuntu installation, I accidentally overwrote my OS drive which had Windows 11. Now, when I check in Ubuntu, I see that all my other drives are still encrypted and ask for a passphrase that I don't have. What are my options here? Should I:
1. Reinstall Windows 11 to see if that automatically decrypts the drives? After that, I could disable BitLocker and reinstall Ubuntu.
2. Am I out of luck with my encrypted data? There's at least one drive I'd really like to recover.
3. If I am out of options, is there a way to wipe the drives clean of the encrypted data and at least be able to use the drives again?
Edit: I found the recovery keys for the drive in my Microsoft account online.
5 Answers
For those of you looking for ways to decrypt your drives and turn off BitLocker, you can move your files to other drives before formatting your BitLocker drive. That way, you can remove the encryption! Just a heads up—make sure to back things up next time to prevent this mess.
Sounds like you’re in a tough spot—unfortunately, if you can't decrypt the drives, it's usually a one-way street. Always make sure to secure your recovery keys in the future!
Remember, the whole point of encryption is security; if you can't access the encryption key, the data is supposed to be inaccessible. If the data was important, please ensure you're always backing things up properly to avoid issues like this. Honestly, you should consider learning more about how encryption and backups work for the future. Sorry to hear about your troubles!
If you used a Microsoft account on Windows, you can find your BitLocker key by checking the device details in your MS account. When you try to access the drives in Ubuntu, just enter that key. If you set up a local account instead, unfortunately, reinstalling Windows won’t grant you access to your drives without the key. My advice would be to first check your online account for the key.
If you locate your key, you can unlock your drives, but beware! If it's not there, you might be in trouble.
Reinstalling Windows won't decrypt your drives, unfortunately. If you can’t find the BitLocker key, you might have lost your data. But if you really want to get those drives working again, formatting them would remove the encryption, but you'd lose everything on them. Just know that the data is gone once you go that route!
I was able to unlock most of my partitions using the key I found in my Microsoft account. Got stuck on one though—it keeps showing 'failed to activate device.' Any tips?