Windows 10: Windows Recovery Environment with BitLocker

I am trying to free up space in my SSD C drive and want to uninstall everything there so I can possibly reinstall it all some of it in my HD.I have tried the built in Windows 11 functionality "Reset this PC" and choosing "Keep files", but it says that it "Could not find recovery environment".After that, I got myself a pendrive USB and installed an installation media for Windows 11, plugged it and rebooted, didn't work; then I tried creating a Recovery drive, tried again, didn't work either.I read somewhere that I needed to enable WinRE by typing "reagentc /enable" into CMD running in admin

:)

 

Unable to enable BitLocker due to mis-configured (?) Windows Recovery Environment

tl;dr: I failed to enable BitLocker on my tablet's system drive for the first time and now I see an error each time I restart Windows or try to enable BitLocker again. Windows claims that this is due to not configured Windows Recovery Environment and I don't know, what to do next.

I have a Windows 10 Pro-based tablet with TPM available and wated to enable BitLocker encryption on drive C: (system drive and the only one in fact, of that matters).

I enabled it for the first time and I went through few steps of its wizard. First, Windows checked, if my hardware allows to use BitLocker. This step passed without problems. Next, I saw a screen in which Windows claimed, that it is moving Windows Recovery Environment to some other (hidden) partition. Reasons for such move remains unknown to me.

In third screen or step I saw I question, where to I want to store encryption key and three options:

• save it to Microsoft account,
  
• store it on USB,
  
• print it.
  

This is a tablet with only microUSB port. I didn't have microUSB-based pendrive or microUSB OTG cable when enabling BitLocker for the first time. And I have my Windows 10 with only single local account. Thus, non of above options was available for me and Next button was disabled.

I've clicked X, seen some error message and shut down my tablet.

When I started it again next day I saw following error during Windows start-up:





Now, I can see it with every Windows 10 restart. This is really weird for me, because -- as I wrote above -- BitLocker configuration was not finished and thus neither BitLocker is enabled nor encryption key is put to TPM.

Each time I try to re-enable BitLocker for C: drive I see following error:





I don't understand, how it is possible that Windows managed to move Windows Recovery Environment from C: drive to a hidden partition, but isn't able to move it back?

Anyway, can anyone shed some light and explain me, what should I do now or how to proceed from this point? How to move back Windows Recovery Environment manually? How to get rid of that startup error message? And the most important -- how to enable BitLocker and encrypt my system drive on my tablet?

 

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.

 

Missing Recovery Environment

Hi Alan,

Here is a link containing several useful suggestions to help you recover Windows 10. Since the error message that you got tells you to insert your Windows installation or recovery media. We suggest the perform the steps listed under
Use a recovery drive to restore or reset your PC or you can also follow the steps under
Use installation media to restore or reset your PC. Please see the link below for more details:

Recovery options in Windows 10.

Regards.