Windows 10: My surface pro sevens hardrive is bitlocker encrypted. How can I recover it?

Hi,I wanted to boot a linux os from USB for doing an exam from home, to do this I had to access the BIOS of my surface pro, and allow it to boot from USB. Once I had done this, and removed USB to return to windows my hard drive has been encrypted by bitlocker. I had never activated bitlocker before and so do not have the key to unlock it.I have followed all the Microsoft advice, but they are taking me around in circles telling me to check my online account for my key. But when I go there it's not been backed up there -because I never set this up.I have tried to reinstall windows, but when it c

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Not Able to Enable Hardware Based Bitlocker Encryption On Surface Pro 4 (Windows 10 Pro)

Ok, I have a feeling that this is a larger Windows 10 issue, but I am experiencing this with the Surface Pro 4, the ideal test hardware for anything Microsoft, right?

Here is what we are trying to accomplish:

Encrypt our Surface Pro 4's (win 10 Pro) using Hardware-Based Encryption

Why?

A) Because it is faster for the SSD to perform the encryption rather than the process, since the SSD is already encrypted

B) Better battery life (because the processor is not encrypting the volume)

C) Performing software encryption on an already encrypted volume defeats many of the internal optimizations that SSDs have built in (leading to slower performance)

How?

We have taken stock Surface Pro 4s, straight from the box. No applications or updates have been installed, we have not added to a domain. The only modification we have made is to the Local Group Policy:

Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Bitlocker Drive Encryption/Operating System Drives

*Require additional authentication at startup (Enabled, default options)

*Enable use of BitLocker Aauthentication requireing preboot keyboard input on slates (Enabled, default options)

*Configure use of hardware-based encryption for operating system drives (Enabled, default options)

What's Wrong:

When I go to enable Bitlocker, I am being provided the prompt to encrypt Used Only, or Whole Drive. From all of the literature I have read, this prompt indicates Software Encryption. When I select Full Drive, it takes a while (over 10 minutes) to encrypt.
Again, from my reading, Hardware

Encryption should be immediate (as everything is already encrypted).

Question:

What am I missing? Is there an issue with Hardware Encryption that I have not been able to identify on the Surface Pro 4? Is this an OS issue? Are there any other troubleshooting steps that I can take a look at? Again, these are stock units, fresh out of
the box from Microsoft.

Sources (these are just some, all have been verified using additional sources that repeat the information):

Slower Performance- Hardware Accelerated BitLocker Encryption: Microsoft Windows 8 eDrive Investigated with Crucial M500

Hardware Accelerated BitLocker Encryption: Microsoft Windows 8 eDrive Investigated with Crucial M500

Steps to enable encryption- How to Enable BitLocker Hardware Encryption with SSDs

How to Enable BitLocker Hardware Encryption with SSDs • Helge Klein

Technet on Why to Hardware Encrypt - Encrypted Hard Drive

Encrypted Hard Drive

GP Settings to Enable Hardware Encryption - Enabling Hardware Acceleration of BitLocker

http://blog.jflamb.com/enabling-hardware-acceleration-of-bitlocker/

Tags Bitlocker, Encryption, Windows 10 Pro, Hardware Encryption, 1511

 

Device Encryption and Bitlocker not appearing

Hi, I have a Dell inspiron 7570 laptop with windows 10 installed. Recently due to some issues a new hardrive was installed on the laptop so now it has 2 hardrives. However when I was booting up the hardrive that has my OS installed, it kept asking me for
the Bitlocker key everytime on startup. As you can expect its annoying having to write in a long bitlocker key. I was looking for solutions online and one person suggested to turn off encryption and then restart the computer and then turn it on again. I did
that, I went into "Device encryption" in settings and turned it off, then restarted my computer, however now "Device encryption" option has completely disappeared from the settings area, I can't seem to find any way to turn on Bitlocker or device encryption,
I'm not sure why it has disappeared. I thought it would allow me to turn it on again but it has just disappeared. Could anyone help me turn encryption on again please? It sounds a little crazy but "device encryption" option just disappeared after turning it
off and restarting.

 

Bitlocker vs device encryption in settings

Exist case a w 10 pro PC - old was w 7 pro...
to support Only Bitlocker and NOT
device encryption in settings... see shot above....?

reply:

• Yes this PC not support device encryption in settings only Bitlocker
• No supports both...