I've forgotten my bitlocker key and password, is there a way to get my computer running again?

0

My brother was playing games on my Surface RT (mainly only used for Steam games) and he messed with some settings and managed to enable Bitlocker encryption without my knowledge and he has no idea which account he tied it to (I had it turned encryption off just in case something like this happened. I guess my luck was just bad on that day). Not soon after that, I was having issues (some bootloop issue) with the same Surface tablet and decided to refresh it and BAM! The thing asked me for a key to decrypt the drive before I proceed. I don't have any important data on it that I really need (my games can be re-downloaded), so I could format the drive if needed. I would just like to have it running again. I have read a few articles telling me how to decrypt but none that tell me how to get my tablet running again without the Bitlocker key and password. I have read an article that says I can click "skip this drive" in the windows recovery environment and then click "just erase my files" but I have also read that it will ask for a decryption key when I boot into windows after resetting, therefore I am worried that this will not remove the Bitlocker encryption and windows will ask for the decryption key that I don't have. Will it ask for a decryption key at boot or will it boot without the key after a reset, moreover, will the reset get stuck at 0% or 1% (I have read about this happening with people that have encryption enabled and I have no idea what will happen if I stop it there - possibly something terrible), and finally, does resetting the tablet remove previous Bitlocker encryption?

Can somebody PLEASE help me? My tablet has been a paperweight for the past week due to me being worried that something may go wrong if I attempt anything on my own without enough knowledge.

If this is in the wrong community please redirect me. Thank you very much.

Steve s.

Posted 2016-01-11T01:37:48.403

Reputation: 11

How do we know it's not a stolen product – SeanClt – 2016-01-11T03:03:28.700

1If you do not have the password or the recovery key what you want is not possible. You should follow the procedure provided by Microsoft to wipe and install Windows RT – Ramhound – 2016-01-11T13:04:34.800

Well, I lost all of the data on it because I had to restore the thing - followed Microsoft's method for restoring and it worked - finally. Spent the past few days restoring all my apps to it including the personal data that i had on it. Also, my brother told me he did it on purpose because he thought it would be more secure (anybody would) but then the battery died halfway through.The bootloop could have been caused by the fact that the encryption process was interrupted or he may have done something else that i have no idea of and i cant get him to speak. – Steve s. – 2016-01-16T00:23:23.967

Answers

-1

Did you set up your Surface with a Microsoft account, or with a local account? If you set it up with a Microsoft account, you should be able to retrieve the Bitlocker key from OneDrive; Microsoft automatically backs up the key just for that reason.

It is also possible that your brother created a new Microsoft account; the Bitlocker key may be backed up to that instead of to yours. Simply ask your brother.

If that doesn't help, I'd be very suspicious to begin with. It's really, really hard to accidentally enable BitLocker.

Kevin Keane

Posted 2016-01-11T01:37:48.403

Reputation: 419

The author does not know what account was used, even if they did, Bitlocker keys are not uploaded to the cloud. What you describe is an entirely different feature's key, and in this case, does not apply to the author based on the description of the problem. – Ramhound – 2016-01-11T13:05:24.337

@Ramhound - you may be thinking of the Bitlocker version included with the Professional/Enterprise versions of Windows on computers with the TPM chip and as member of a domain. On non-domain-joined PCs, Bitlocker does upload the key to your Microsoft account unless you jump through quite a few hoops to prevent that. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/bitlocker-recovery-keys-faq . Since this was a Surface RT device, it is obviously not domain joined.

– Kevin Keane – 2016-01-21T04:19:28.687

That is called device encryption, its not Bitlocker, there is a huge difference. You also can easily prevent that key from being uploaded to Microsoft if you want, takes a little work and a little time, but only a couple steps. – Ramhound – 2016-01-21T11:42:29.757

Asked: 2016-01-11T01:37:48.403

Viewed: 1 070 times

Active: 2016-01-11T07:32:43.530