Windows 10: External HDD suddenly locked by Bitlocker, but I never used Bitlocker! Never even heard of...

I have a "My Passport" external HDD. I use it to backup ALL my photos, and it is the only place my entire music mp3s library is stored.It worked fine last night. I opened up my laptop this morning, and got a message saying that the drive is locked and "Bitlocker protected," and it asks for some 48-digit key! I had no idea what this even meant, until I googled it and discovered the BAD NEWS.I have never used Bitlocker. Nobody else uses this laptop Dell. It worked fine last night. I left my computer on and it went to sleep; when I opened it this morning, my external HDD is now apparently LO

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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

 

External Hard Drive Locked Automatically by Bitlocker

I have a problem with my external hard drive. It appears that Bitlocker locked it without my knowledge. I have never even heard of Bitlocker before my File Explorer told me that the drive was locked by Bitlocker.

I have no password because I did not set it up. As for the recovery key, I was able to retrieve it from my Microsoft Account. However, when I used it, Windows 10 did not accept the recovery key.

How do I recover my files from my external hard drive?

Thanks,

Rob

 

Bitlocker frequently locking computers

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately these suggestions don't really fit our needs. We want to use BitLocker and don't want to disable it. The problem we have is that it locks some of our computers from time to time. Ideally we will make use of BitLocker but not have it blocking our computers.

I have tried:

1. Turning off BitLocker
   
2. Installing all Driver and Windows Updates
   
3. Turning BitLocker back on again
   

Maybe this will help. We will wait and see.