Forum Discussion
how do i get past bitlocker?
i updated my bios which tripped the bitlocker and i dont have access to the recovery key at all, its not on my microsoft account anywhere, its not saved anywhere and i didnt even know i had it enabled when i updated thet bios, i tried restoring the old bios to see if that would fix it and it didnt, im at a lose at what to do now and im out of ideas, i have the original windows 10 key i use when i upgraded to win 11 and alphanumerical IDs when getting into the command prompt from the bitlocker recovery system, nothing i type in for a password seems to be working, ive tried numerous short passwords and even the password to log into my microsoft account, all of my drives are locked and i need to to get back into them to save files that i dont have backed up anywhere else, it wouldnt be so bad if it was only the C drive locked since i only keep the windows install and any programs i download, can anyone please help me out here im open to any and all ways of getting back into my drives, exploits, hacks or anything, i do have a backup i made sometime last year of the C drive on an external harddrive which i dont know if that can help at all, am gonna attempt to take out all of my drives and install an old SSD ive got and try to restore windows with that backup to see if i can find the key somewhere from that unless someone tells me how to work it out, thanks for reading
3 Replies
The BIOS update you performed changed the trusted measurements of the TPM (Trusted Platform Module), and BitLocker therefore determined that the boot environment had been tampered with, triggering recovery mode. The passwords you tried before were all incorrect because the recovery key is not a "password"—it is a 48-digit numerical code, and Microsoft account passwords, Windows product keys, etc., are all invalid.
The Windows product key, Microsoft-account password and recovery key ID cannot substitute for the 48-digit BitLocker recovery password. A firmware change can trigger recovery, but restoring the BIOS does not guarantee access. Record each drive’s recovery key ID and check Microsoft accounts used during setup, former work/school accounts, printed copies and USB/text-file backups. If somebody else configured Windows, the key may be in their account. Preserve the encrypted drives and last year’s C-drive image before experimenting. That image may be useful if it contains saved recovery information or the OS state used for data-drive auto-unlock; Microsoft documents that auto-unlock information is stored on the OS volume. It does not guarantee recovery after restoring the image. Have a recovery specialist assess copies without overwriting the originals. Microsoft cannot recreate a lost key, and resetting or formatting removes data rather than unlocking it. Avoid those steps while recovering your unbacked-up files.
I've checked every email account I could've used and there's nothing on there, I'm at a complete loss at the moment on what to do, haven't tried restoring the backup yet and don't know if thats gonna trip bitlocker to pop up and if it does then I'm probably gonna cry haha
