Did BitLocker drive encryption corrupt my disc?

0

I use my external HDD only with my laptop, which runs Windows 7. One of my friends tried to open it on another laptop with Windows XP.

The first two attempts, he faced an error saying "E: is not accessible" popped up.
On the third try, when he double-clicked on E:, his laptop asked him if he wanted to format the HDD. By mistake, he pressed 'Format', and, within 2 seconds, canceled the formatting process.

Now, when I use that disk on my laptop, it asks me for a key. After providing the key, BitLocker status changes from "Locked" to "On". But, when I double-click E:, it opens a window saying

E: is not accessible. The disc structure is corrupted and unreadable.

What should I do to open it?

pd90

Posted 2012-05-28T12:18:23.827

Reputation: 1

Windows XP does not support BitLocker and there is no way to add support. All data on the drive is gone. Because the drive is encrypted, you would have to provide the key, then you might be able to recover files although this is unlikely. I suggest in the future doing backups. – Ramhound – 2012-05-29T14:17:00.920

Answers

5

Bitlocker didn't corrupt the disc, formatting it did. I'd recommend just recovering from your latest backup. It's really not worth the trouble to try to repair this kind of damage.

David Schwartz

Posted 2012-05-28T12:18:23.827

Reputation: 58 310

I dont have its backup. – pd90 – 2012-05-28T13:10:18.097

2If the data wasn't worth keeping a backup of, it's definitely not worth recovering without one. – David Schwartz – 2012-05-28T13:11:29.903

1Recovering an encrypted drive? oh boy. – Jeff F. – 2012-05-29T12:40:30.650

Asked: 2012-05-28T12:18:23.827

Viewed: 1 488 times

Active: 2017-04-09T09:51:04.913