Windows 10: Recovery Tools to bypass BITLOCKER?? Can't access valuable data after Jan '19 Windows 10...

I desperately need data recovery tools that can bypass bitlocker.


I have a year-old Dell Inspiron 5000 series with a SSD made by Micron and 512gb storage, operating on Windows 10 Home edition. (I7 Intel core, 16 gb RAM.)


Been ghostwriting a book for a client, merrily believing that the OneDrive file list that showed on the left edge of my screen was a view of my OneDrive files in the cloud (what else would it be??). I ignorantly believed all my files were backing up there when I saved them to My PC documents. They showed up on that list and I could click on them and see them.


Surprise!


Microsoft informed me that list that was on my screen is a list of files on my hard drive! (A second set of the same files on my hard drive? One set under My PC and another identical set under OneDrive? Both on the hard drive? Why?)


They were a list of what was to be backed up to the cloud, or so I'm told. Is that right? (When?) But no guarantee they were. In fact, when a Microsoft tech helped me access my files in my OneDrive in the cloud, almost nothing from the last 6 months was there (why 6 months?) except a couple of unimportant Word documents and some photos. My writing of my client's book was NOT there, nor were many other valuable documents.


I thought OneDrive was supposed to back up everything or nothing! How could some things be there but most not be?


BIGGER QUESTION: How does this upsetting OneDrive news pertain to the latest Windows 10 update?


The January Windows 10 update, which downloaded itself automatically, crashed my system. I got the blue screen of death. Subsequently, I found out I had no backup.


Get this: Even though Bitlocker was not available on Windows 10 home edition when I bought the PC, so wasn't something I could enable if I wanted to (and I didn't even know there was such a thing as Bitlocker a year ago), my data on my hard drive couldn't be recovered because...



IT WAS ENCRYPTED BY BITLOCKER!!

How could this happen? No one at Microsoft knew. Maybe Dell did it. Maybe Micron did it.


And was I given a Bitlocker key? Of course not!


How could this happen? I finally found out through research. It seems that Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, decided to give EVERYONE Bitlocker, default enabled status, in one of their updates. Did they distribute keys? Of course not. Did they let us know? Of course not. Did they post the keys in our Microsoft accounts, where (I've learned) they typically belong? Of course not!


Use data recovery tools, right? I took it to experts, and I worked with Microsoft. No data recovery company will accept the job, once they hear "encrypted by bitlocker," except one company who said they'd try, but it would cost between $3 and $10,000 and they couldn't guarantee any results.



So I have a hard drive with bitlocker-encrypted data (that I can't recover) worth $10k (the advance on the book I've been writing, which I will have to repay)--all data that wasn't backed up, thanks to OneDrive's eccentricities.


And I've lost 6 weeks of my life trying to find a solution, day and night, with a Microsoft Level 2 tech in Chinnai, India. In those 6 (yes six!) weeks, there has been no progress, except that I now know more about bitlocker and Microsoft's screwed-up practices than I ever wanted to.


Has anyone found data recovery tools or a method to get around bitlocker? Or is there really something else going on?


Remember that I got a blue screen--no booting up, no setting a restore point. Nothing available except the Bios screen. Since then, the encrypted hard drive has been removed, and a new hard drive and fresh version of Windows 10 have been installed.


But I need the data on the old hard drive! I still have it. I wouldn't let Dell take it when they sold me a new hard drive, even though they insisted they had a right to it. (Don't get me started on them!)


Help!


:)

 

Data recovery software

The Big Useful List Of Free Useful Programs To Use Usually For Free

click the top spoiler and then look down to recovery.

All of the suggestions in the old threads were consolidated into that one.

 

Data Recovery for Mac (OSX Capitan) ?

Anybody knows of a good data recovery software for mac? Preferably free?

I use Active@ Data Recovery for Windows, but honestly no idea what to use for Mac OSX.

Any suggestions?

 

bitlocker recovery key

Hi Singh,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

In order to get clarity on this issue and assist you with appropriate troubleshooting steps, please reply with the answers to the questions below.

1. Are you not able login to your computer due to BitLocker Recovery Key?
2. Did you ever setup BitLocker Recovery Key on your computer?
3. Are you not able to login to your Microsoft Account to find the BitLocker Recovery Key?
4. Are you using Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Professional?

Meanwhile, try finding BitLocker Recovery Key if you have ever setup BitLocker Recovery Key for your computer.

Please elaborate on the issue, so that we can understand the concern and get back to us to help you further.