Windows 10: bitlocker issue on external harddrive.

I have an external harddrive500gb its 420gb full and I wanted to encrypt it. So I decided to use bitlocker because reviews from the internet says it’s the best. I left it to be encrypted overnight and when I woke up, it was stuck at 65%, I paused the encryption and went my day, later that day i plug in the external harddrive the bitlocker popups and i insert my password and the resume menu opens, i click on it, i try to keep myself busy and 30 mins later the drive is still at 65% encrypted, i go to click pause again so i can try another usb port, it suddeny crashes, it brings up the not resp

:)

 

External USB HDD drive bitlocker encrypted without a key

Hello CatchyWater7200,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. We're sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.

I am aware that you're having trouble accessing your external USB disk drive that has been encrypted by BitLocker. I am here to help. Allow me to ask a question.

• Would you mind sharing what exactly the message shows when ask for the USB key?
  

Your drive appears to have been encrypted using BitLocker, a function that guards your data against illegal access. For access to the drive, BitLocker requires a password or recovery key. Since you don't have a BitLocker USB key, you can try using the BitLocker recovery key to unlock the drive. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Connect the external USB disk drive to your Surface Pro 6.
   
2. When prompted to enter the BitLocker key, click on "More options". Or you can enter "Esc" key or the Windows key to continue.
   
3. Click on "Enter recovery key".
   
4. Enter the BitLocker recovery key that you found on your Microsoft account.
   
5. Click on "Unlock".
   

If the above steps don't work, you can try disabling BitLocker on the external USB disk drive. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Connect the external USB disk drive to your Surface Pro 6.
   
2. Open File Explorer and right-click on the external USB disk drive.
   
3. Click on "Manage BitLocker".
   
4. Click on "Turn off BitLocker".
   
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to disable BitLocker on the external USB disk drive.
   

Please note that disabling BitLocker will remove the encryption from the external USB disk drive and make it less secure. Therefore, it's recommended to re-enable BitLocker once you've accessed your files and photos.

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,

Lavenia

 

Bitlocker on multiple external drives

Hi Myron,



Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.



I understand that you are facing issues with using bitlocker on Windows 10. I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

The issue could occur if bitlocker settings is incorrect.

I suggest you to try decrypting the volume for the multiple external drives and then reset the bitlocker for the multiple drives.

Refer to the below Microsoft Help Article.

Note: The step provided in the below link is also applicable in Windows 10.

Windows help and learning

Let us know if you need any further assistance on Windows related issues and we will be glad to help.

 

External hard drive bitlocker issue

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



We understand the difficulties you are facing with the BitLocker encryption on your external drive. We checked on this and would like you to refer the

BitLocker recovery guide article if that helps you to fix the issue.



However, the issues on BitLocker is best suited to be posted on our
TechNet forum, where we have experts and support professionals who are well equipped with the knowledge on BitLocker Encryption to assist you with the appropriate troubleshooting steps.



Aditya Roy

Microsoft Community – Moderator