I have a laptop from a customer who's lost their Bitlocker recovery key but still has the ID. I've tried using manage-bde through Windows PE, but for some odd reason, Bitlocker blue screens at startup, and I can't type anything—even with an external keyboard. I've already disabled fast boot and secure boot in the BIOS, but I'm still facing the same issue. I even attempted to use Kali Linux, but I couldn't mount the C drive. The customer wants all their data retrieved, and at this point, I'm considering doing a clean install of Windows and using data recovery software. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? Any advice or solutions would be hugely appreciated!
3 Answers
Oh man, that sounds frustrating! I had a similar issue with a friend's laptop where it blue screened shortly after booting. Unfortunately, we found out that without the recovery key, there’s no way to get the data back, and we had to factory reset it. If your customer can't find that key, I’m afraid you might end up in the same boat. Best of luck!
To clarify, the ID is pretty much useless without the corresponding recovery key. You can't unlock the drive on Linux either because everything is encrypted. A clean install just wipes Bitlocker settings, so the data remains inaccessible. Unfortunately, if the key isn't found, it looks like the data is lost for good.
If you can somehow get into Windows or Safe Mode, check for crash files in C:WindowsMinidump. Those dump files can be useful for troubleshooting BSOD issues. You might try zipping that folder and uploading it somewhere like catbox or mediafire since other hosts get blocked. But keep in mind, without the key, recovery might be hard.
Thanks for sharing your experience! It seems like that's the general consensus. Guess we'll have to keep hoping the customer finds that key.