Up to now, I’ve talked about setting up BitLocker, enabling BitLocker with TPM, and enabling BitLocker without a TPMh, and in Part IV of this series, I’m going to talk about how to recover data from a drive that is protected by BitLocker in case something goes wrong!
So what can possibly go wrong with BitLocker that could entail you losing all of your data? A couple of things:
- An error due to TPM occurs
- The TPM is accidentally cleared and the computer is shut down
- The TPM is accidentally turned off and the computer is shut down
- A boot file is modified and/or corrupted
When something goes wrong, the computer will start up in Recovery mode before the operating system even starts. In order to regain access to your data and the operating system, you have to supply the recovery password that is either on a USB drive use the function keys (F1 to F10) to enter the password manually.
Recover access to BitLocker Encrypted Data
Step 1: Turn on your computer. The BitLocker Drive Encryption Recovery Console will appear.
Image Source: RM
Step 2: If you saved the password to a USB flash drive, you will be prompted to insert the drive into the computer. Go ahead and do so and then press ESC. The computer will reboot and you can access Windows.
Image Source: RM
Step 3: If you did not save it to a USB drive, you will have to enter the password manually. If you saved the password to a file, open the file that will be named the same as the Password ID listed on the recovery console display.
Just make sure the USB drive is not bootable as Windows will not detect it. Since you MUST have the password to recover data, make sure you save the recovery password in several places in case something goes wrong. Enjoy!
Hi Kishore
thanks for a good blog and info
If I encrypt a 16GB USB Key with Bitlocker on Windows 7
then If I reinstall Windows7 or want to access my USB Key on anyother operating system would it allow me to do so ? provided I input the password ?
Kind regards