Windows 10: I have a laptop with a USB stick used to unlock bitlocker.... Drive is broken and needs to...

title says almost everythingClient has a older consumer laptop without a TPM chip. They set up Bitlocker using a USB stick as a key... the USB stick is broken and NEEDS to be replaced. How do you create a new USB unlock key, or replace the existing USB with a new one?

:)

 

Broken USB Stick (Bitlocker Encrypted, Unformatted drive)

A Sandisk USB stick of mine has become broken when word crashed when I was using it one day. All Files on this device are Bitlocker Encrypted.

When trying to use the USB stick normally:

• the password for Bitlocker is requested,
• once entered, attempting to access the drive brings up that it is unformatted and requires formatting. However formatting the drive will apparently clear the drive of all data on it.
  

The data recovery software I'm trying to access the files with is:

MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free Edition v7.0

I have also attempted removing bit locker from the drive, however this produces error code:

0x80070015

When command prompting:

manage-bde -off E:

 

Bitlocker will not detect USB stick

Hi

I'm having trouble with BitLocker.

I've got two encrypted laptops, one made by Asus, the other by Sony. Both are encrypted with Bitlocker but neither have a TPM module, so I've made the various policy changes and use a USB stick to decrypt them as they boot. All is good.

However, the USB stick, which hangs off my keyring, was cheap, and the plastic case has now completely fallen apart, so all I'm left with is the metal innards! I fear that although it currently works (if I can hold enough of it to insert into the laptop
- it's tiny), it'll probably stop working soon.

So, I bought myself a new metal USB memory stick of the same size as the old one (16Gb). I formatted it as FAT32. I tried copying the code across from the old memory stick to the new one, which seemed to work without a problem. However, when I boot the laptops,
neither of them will detect this USB stick - they both say "Please insert the USB device containing the encryption key" (or words to that effect). If I insert the old (broken!) USB stick, they both boot fine.

Thinking that I couldn't just copy the code, I tried another way, by going to Control Panel --> BitLocker Drive Encryption, then inserting the new USB stick and clicking "Copy startup key". I select the new USB stick, and click "Save". On one laptop, the
window simply disappears at this point, but the key isn't copied onto the new stick. On the other laptop, I get the error "The startup key couldn't be created. Try again or restart the BitLocker wizard"

Assuming that this was simply a faulty or incompatible USB stick (despite it working fine for standard file storage) I bought another USB stick. This one was more expensive, and was made by Kingston Memory. Identical results. I tried formatting the USB disk.
I tried deleting the partition on the USB disk and then re-creating it, and re-formatting it. Same problem.

In despair, I bought a third USB stick, from yet another manufacturer. I wondered if it was to do with Bitlocker having a problem with USB 3, so I bought a USB 2 memory stick. Still exactly the same issue on both laptops.

I really need to find a solution to this - I don't mind buying yet another memory stick, but I need to know what makes some sticks (okay, one stick) compatible, and others not compatible, otherwise I'm going to have a thousand USB sticks and still no working
BitLocker.

Can anyone help?

 

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