Windows 10: disabling BitLocker on SSD from friends dead laptop to permit user file salvage

Dear Microsoft Community.


I am trying to help a friend out. Her Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 laptop died when her toddler bumped a glass of water right into the keyboard. Repeated attempts to power-on and boot the system fail, with no visible responses whatsoever. I removed the back cover and did close visual inspection of all visible components. I detected at least a dozen 12+ spots on the main board, where IC's, microchips, and micro-components looked smoked, toasted, and just plain burnt. I conclude these were the result of H2O shorting out pins and circuits on the top side of main board, which is not visible.


I conferred with my friend, explained the situation, that the main board was now 'toast'. I suggested we try to salvage the SSD drive and her user files, if we could. So we started that effort. We researched the SSD component, then researched a suitable SSD NVME Adapter enclosure for connection to USB. We bought what I believe is a quality product of that type adapter. It arrived today, and this evening I transferred the old NVME SSD from the dead laptop to the new NVME Adapter. Plugged it into the USB 3.1 Thunderbolt port on my personal MSI Windows 10 laptop.


The good news is that Windows 10 is acting like it can see a drive on E: which confirms the nvme adapter is playing well with the old nvme SSD from dead laptop. So the old SSD is I think still good and not dead. The bad news is that Windows immediately informs me the drive is protected by BitLocker and that I need "the 48 digit Recovery Key to unlock the {SSD} drive." It also provides me the 8 digit hex "Key ID#", which I wrote down.


I do not know who, when, or where BitLocker was originally turned On for the old dead laptop. I do not have the required 48 digit recovery key, nor do I know who might have it. I txtd my friend, explained the situation, and suggested they look around for the original factory papers that came with the old dead laptop. Maybe the BitLocker Recovery Key number is provided there, but I doubt it.


So, that's my situation. I want to make every effort to salvage my friends user files from the old SSD so we can copy them to a USB Flash Drive, and then transfer them to her new computer. If we can accomplish that, then we can just reformat the old SSD, leave it in the nvme ssd adapter, and they can use it as external storage.


So, is there any way I can disable, deactivate, or otherwise switch off, the existing BitLocker protection currently blocking my access to the old laptop's SSD now resident in the new nvme ssd adapter? Given that the hardware component and nvme adapter appear functionally sound, but I do not have the BitLocker Recovery Key number. And the old Dell Laptop is pretty much toast, which prevents booting and most likely even accessing the BIOS.


If I cannot locate the original BitLocker recovery key number, is there any way forwards to salvage the user files?


Thanks.

DS-219

:)

 

Edge Search Does Not Permit Change of Region


I got these suggestions from the Microsoft Community forum.No. 1 worked for me:

Thank you for posting the query on Microsoft Community. I am glad to assist you on this.
We have reproduce the issue here and we are able to access non-regional search for google using Microsoft Edge.
I would suggest you to try the below steps and check if it helps.
Step 1:
Clear browsing data option of Microsoft Edge and check if you face the issue. To do so perform the steps below.

1. Click on the More actions icon next to the feedback icon present on top right corner of the Project Spartan homepage.
2. Select Settings and click on Choose what to clear.
3. Check the boxes Browsing history, Cookies and saved website data and Cached data and files and click on Clear.

Step 2:
I suggest you to create a new user account and check if the issue occurs.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Choose Accounts and then select Family and other users.
3. Select add someone else on this PC.
4. Enter a user name and hit next.
5. Click on Finish.
6. Sign out from the current Account and Log into the new account.

Step 3:
It could also happen because of network issue. I suggest you to try with different network connection and check if it helps.

 

Current active users that are friends

The other reason I suggested this is that users can add characters to their username that are not alphanumeric (e.g. user*). This confuses things somewhat when looking at the list.

 

Bitlocker recovery key

Hello,

I'm the IT user-support person in a company and I have this issue with a corporate laptop (belong to a domain & Active Directory):

I received from a user his laptop "dead" (no power-on, nothing to start-it). Accordingly to company security policies I deliver the laptop in service with another blank disk (the same SSD type) because the original one contained data.

After receiving the fixed laptop from service, I changed back the disks by putting the original one at it place.

Now, it occur the issue: at first step of booting it request the Bitlocker recovery key because the disk was bitlocker encrypted before.

The bad-luck is that I don't have this Bitlocker recovery key nowhere: on the printed paper, USB memory stick and not even on the Active Directory.

Is strange, because ussually, the other workstations (laptops with bitlocker activated) have this information on Active Directory.

Maybe because of a possible cause: the laptop owner use to work at home with the laptop and the Active Directory didn't synchronized the information related to Bitlocker recovery key (like for other laptop used in LAN).

I have the "Recovery key ID" on the blue screen for the laptop but is useless because I cannot find the "Bitlocker recovery key" on Active Directory using it.

What do you suggest to do in this case?

Many thanks for any advice and answer.

Mircea Dumitrescu.