Windows 10: Why does Windows 11 show BitLocker recovery and boot errors after idle/shutdown, and how do...

Summary of the Issue:I'm encountering a recurring issue on my Windows 11 laptop. After shutting down or leaving the system idle/sleeping for a few hours, the device unexpectedly boots into the BitLocker recovery screen, followed by a “Your PC did not start correctly” error. Additionally, the laptop randomly restarts during active use.After shutting down or putting the laptop to sleep for ~2–3 hours, the next startup shows the BitLocker recovery screen.After entering the recovery key or skipping, I get the “Your PC did not start correctly” error message.After clicking Restart, the laptop boots

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BitLocker recovery keys after Dual Boot

Hi Varun Kelkar,



Welcome to Microsoft Community. I'm Mosken, let me help you.



According to your description, I knew that you were asked to enter the Bitlocker recovery key when dual booting Windows 11 with Windows + Linux. Is that right?

According to your description and the current situation, you may have used Bitlocker to encrypt the Windows system partition, but after you install the Linux system, the original system partition state has been changed, so you will be asked to enter the recovery key.



Generally, you will be prompted to save the recovery key when you encrypt with Bitlocker, as shown in the figure below.

• If you choose "Save to your Microsoft account", then it will exist in the Microsoft account you logged in when encrypting.
  

• If you choose the other three, it should be a .txt file with a long name contains alphanumerics, please recall whether and where you have saved it.
  

If you can't find the recovery key in your Microsoft account or the file that included the recovery key, I suggest you try unlocking the partition in Linux, back up your data, and then format the partition.

If it cannot be unlocked, sorry, there is currently no other effective solution to unlock a partition encrypted with Bitlocker, you can only reformat the partition to use it normally again.

The above steps are provided based on the information I have learned so far, and hope that could help you a little. If the problem still exists, please provide us a full PSR from the beginning, through the whole process, and until the error message is displayed, so we can further investigate.



Best Regards,

| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

How does Windows boot to advanced recovery option e.g. command prompt?

- that gives me a 454 'Unexpected error' This tells me that the BCD is partially corrupted.

The commands: shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00
or: %SystemRoot%\System32\Cmd.exe /c reagentc /boottore&shutdown /r /f /t 00
should boot into Recovery if everything is configured correctly.
FYI, If Windows is configured correctly:

1. If Reagentc is disabled, you still can get into Recovery but with limited options.
2. If Reagentc is enabled, you'll get all options.
3. If you boot Windows using Recovery USB stick, You'll get into Recovery with couple of options missing.

Here's my suggestion if you want to try:
OPTION 1: Will save the trouble of re-install Windows.

1. Download the image of my first 3 partitions (450MB Recovery, 100 MB EFI partition, and 16MB unformatted primary)
   EFI_Boot-00-00.7z - Google Drive
2. Run Macrium and restore the image from step 1, overwriting your existing 1st three partitions, leaving C alone.
3. Delete the 490MB Recovery partition.
4. From Macrium, run fix boot problems.
5. Reboot. Open Admin command prompt then run Reagentc /info to make sure that it is enabled. If not, enable it.
   if failed to enable, reboot and try again.

OPTION 2: Assuming you've already had Windows backup with Macrium.

1. Wipe out the first 5 parttiions. (450MB, 100MB, 16MB, C Drive, 480MB)
2. Fresh install Windows 10
3. Restore C drive from backup image, run fix boot problems
4. repeat step 5 from OPTION 1 above.

 

recovery bitlocker blue screen

Hi Rick,

Please follow the suggestions below and check if you are able to boot to your desktop.

• Places to look for your BitLocker key:
  • On a printout you saved. Look in places you keep important papers.
    
  • Saved on a USB flash drive. Plug the USB flash drive into your locked PC and follow the instructions. If you saved the key as a text file on the flash drive, use a different computer to read the text file.
  • In your Microsoft account. To get your recovery key, go to
    BitLocker Recovery Keys.

• Or ask someone for help:
  • Ask someone with administrator privileges on the same PC to unlock it with their key.
  • If your PC is connected to a domain (usually a work or school computer), ask a system administrator for your recovery key

Hope this helps in resolving the bitlocker recovery keys. Keep us posted on the bitlocker recovery key issues. We are happy to help!