BitLocker is a common full-disk encryption application used on Windows 10 laptops. We recently had a client where, on their Dell laptop running Windows 10 Pro, a BitLocker dialogue box appeared out of the blue requesting a “recovery key”. Without it, it was looking like they would not be able to access their desktop or their files. The box entitled “BitLocker Recovery” requested that the user “enter the recovery key for this drive”. (This is normally a 48-digit key which decrypts the Volume Master Key which is needed for the decryption process to run) You may also see a request to “enter the PIN to unlock this drive. This was a complete surprise to our client. They had never enabled BitLocker on the system. In fact, just to be sure, they double-checked their Windows online account. There was no evidence of BitLocker ever having been enabled.
Fortunately, this was no big deal. It’s just a little quirk on Dell laptops where the system gives the illusion of being encrypted with BitLocker when it’s actually not. Here are the steps to fix it.
- Acces your Dell’s BIOS. You can normally access this by pressing on F2, just after your press the power-on button.
- Look for the section called “SecureBoot”
- Now navigate down to a section called “Expert Key Management”
- Select “Restore Settings” followed by “Factory Settings”.
- Click “ok” and exit the BIOS.
When you restart the computer, the BitLocker recovery box should have gone away.
Drive Rescue are based in Dublin, Ireland and offers a full data recovery service for BitLockered drives removed from Dell, Lenovo, HP, Fujitsu and Acer laptops even if physically damaged. We also offer a data recovery service Microsoft Surface SSDs which are BitLocker protected. Phone Us on 1890 571 571