Windows 10: Is there any scope for recovering a Windows Pro key from a bitlocked drive?

A friend retired recently and gave me his old laptops. One has Win10 Pro but is bitlocked and he has no idea of key because it was bitlocked by his IT.IS there a remote posibility of recovering the Windows key so that it is not wasted?

:)

 

Windows 8.1 PRO unable to unlock Bitlocked drive

Can you take a screen shot of the bitlocker window?

Also, what happens when you highlight the drive in This PC and go to the Manage tab? There should be some bitlocker options there.

 

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

 

Windows 8.1 PRO unable to unlock Bitlocked drive

I used a Bitlocker in Windows 8 PRO to Lock my Internal SATA Drive. I have formatted my PC twice in past and I was able to unlock it after each fresh installation of Windows 8.

But Recently I did a fresh Installation of Windows using same Software and CDKEY. This time I did upgraded to Windows 8.1 including all the latest patches.
Problem is When I click on my Drive, Windows give me the message " DO YOU WANT TO FORM IT" When I do click Cancel. I do the following message "The
volume does not contain a recognized file system....."
Here is the screenshot of error message
imgur.com

Disk management shows a healthy Drive:
imgur.com

I have done fresh installation of windows several times before but never had this issue. I was always able to restore security settings and unlock my drive using BITLOCKER.

I have tried to unlock the drive with just Windows 8 pro and the problem persists.

Additional Info:
- Control Panel > BitLocker, Software no longer shows my drive under it.
- Hardware specs remain the same before or after the issue.

Any tech support would be great.