A lot of people who encrypted their hard drives with BitLocker forgot their password. Here are six things you can try if you also forgot your BitLocker restore key. It also helps you get back on track if you lose the BitLocker recovery key by chance.
Questions People Ask About the BitLocker Password and Recovery Key
There are a lot of commonly asked questions about BitLocker password and recovery key after you search for them. You need to answer these questions in order to help fix the BitLocker restore key loss problem.
What does the BitLocker Recovery Key do?
BitLocker would make a unique set of 48-digit passwords if you secured a hard drive with it. In other words, that is the BitLocker restore key or password. Your password should be kept in a safe place and easy to remember. You can’t get into the protected hard drive if you forget or lose the BitLocker password. You may also run into problems like “BitLocker not showing for USB”, “BitLocker Fatal Error”, “BitLocker recovery key not working”, and so on.
Where to Look for the BitLocker Secret Key
Where can I find the BitLocker password for recovery? You may already know that the recovery key can be kept in your Microsoft account, on a USB hard drive, in a TXT file, or even on paper. You can first try these places to find your BitLocker restore key if you forgot it by accident.
Can someone get around the BitLocker recovery password key?
Is it possible to get around the BitLocker restore key? BitLocker drive protection doesn’t normally ask for the recovery key when the computer first starts up. So, if you change the hardware on your motherboard or your system crashes, you might get stuck on the BitLocker restore screen when you try to start up again. In this case, read this post and try these ways to get around the BitLocker restore key.
Can I get my data back after formatting the BitLocker drive?
Some people said they still can’t figure out the BitLocker password and get the key back. So, they want to format the drive that is locked with BitLocker. Is it possible to get back the info after formatting? “No” is the answer, which is too bad.
BitLocker encryption protects the whole disk, and removing the password is the only way to get rid of the encryption. The formatted data is still protected, and it takes the BitLocker recovery password to get it back. Also, the data you got back from the formatted drive is just some words that you can’t understand.
How to Get Back in If You Lost Your BitLocker Password and Recovery Key
How do you get back into BitLocker if you forget the restore key? We put together this list of 6 easy-to-use ways after reading a lot of user reports and technical papers. Let’s do them in that order.
1. Look on your computer or USB drive for the BitLocker Recovery Key.
The BitLocker Pin restore key can be kept in more than one place, as we already said. It is possible to get back your BitLocker password if you saved it somewhere else and then forgot it. You can use your Microsoft account to look for it here. If it’s not here, check your USB drive or a piece of paper to see if it’s there.
You can also keep the BitLocker password on your computer in a BEK file called BitLocker Recovery Key. Press the Win+E keys to open the Windows File Explorer. Type *.bek into the search box and press Enter. Then wait for the scan to finish. Then you can look through the search results to see if the key is there.
2. Use your normal passwords to try to get in.
BitLocker tells users to make a strong, unique password for the protected drive, but some people may use passwords they already know or have used before. If you can’t remember the BitLocker restore key, try remembering all of these common passwords: your Microsoft account password, your Google login password, your email password, and so on. You can open the encrypted drive if you can find the right BitLocker recovery password.
3. Use a professional tool to crack your BitLocker password.
A bit unusual way to fix “BitLocker recovery key lost Windows 10” is to use a professional tool that cracks BitLocker passwords. Here is a list of some useful tools for you:
It is the first open-source BitLocker recovery password breaking tool that works with hard drives, USB flash drives, SD cards, and more. A dictionary attack can be used to try to find the right BitLocker password or repair.
Passware Kit: This is an easy-to-use tool for cracking passwords that can open encrypted files and whole drives. It can also decrypt different file forms and show passwords for browsers, email, and networks.
BitLocker encrypted drives and BitLocker to Go protected portable devices can both use Thegrideon Software to get back lost passwords. This tool does its job by using a number of different password search attacks, such as dictionary attacks that have been changed, brute-force attacks, and advanced mixed attacks.
4. Use CMD to do a force recovery
To get the BitLocker Pin recovery, some users said they had to use the command line to do a force recovery. You can try this here on a computer nearby or far away. Pick the one that works best for you.
Force restore a computer that is close by:
Step 1: Type “cmd” into the search box. Then, right-click the first app that comes up and choose “Run as administrator.” Then, when asked if you want to gain the admin privilege, click “Yes.”
Step 2: Type the next command into the large Command Prompt window and press Enter. You need to change the <Volume> to your protected drive here.
manage-bde -forcerecovery <name of volume>
Do a force repair on a computer that is far away:
As a domain owner, you could try to do a force recovery on a computer that is far away. Because of that:
Step 1: Just like we said above, open the higher Command Prompt window.
Step 2: Type the next order and press “Enter.”
-ComputerName <ComputerName> -forcerecovery <Volume> manage-bde
5. Change the BitLocker Pin Recovery Password or Key
If you have Windows 10 and have forgotten your BitLocker Pin recovery or password, you can change it or restart it.
You can change the BitLocker PIN recovery or password in two ways. Let’s attempt:
Way 1: Use File Explorer to change or reset your BitLocker pin.
Step 1: Press the Win+E keys to open the File Explorer. Right-click on the system drive or another protected BitLocker drive and choose Change BitLocker PIN.
Step 2: Click on the “Forgot your PIN?” link in the pop-up window. That way, you can make a new password without having to enter your old PIN.
Press “Click How to reset a lost PIN
To change your BitLocker PIN or password if this method doesn’t work, try the next one.
Way 2: Use the command prompt to change or reset the BitLocker pin.
Step 1: Open the Command Prompt window that is hidden.
Step 2: Type the following instructions and press Enter to change your BitLocker PIN. Then, when asked, put in the new PIN and press Enter. Here, you need to change “C:” to the letter of the drive that you secured with BitLocker.
Step 3: Run the following command to change the BitLocker Password. To show this, let’s use E drive.
If you are sure that the encrypted drive does not have any important files on it, reformatting the drive is the fastest way to get rid of BitLocker protection. Here is a guide for you.
Step 1: Open the Command Prompt window that is hidden again.
Step 2: In the Command Prompt window that is raised, type the following words one after the other and press Enter each time.
diskpart list disk pick disk * (replace * with the number of the disk that has the BitLocker encrypted drive on it)
list partition select partition * (Change * to the number of the encrypted drive’s partition).
But if the protected BitLocker drive had important data on it that you can’t afford to lose, the only way to get it back is to find the lost recovery key. How to get back into Windows 10 if you lose your BitLocker restore key? Let’s read more.
How to Get Back the BitLocker Recovery Key If You Lost It
What should you do if you forget your BitLocker password and delete the BitLocker restore key by accident? Do not worry! As previously stated, save the BitLocker restore key as a text file on your computer or a USB flash drive.
If this sounds like your situation, you’re lucky. If you have a professional data recovery tool, you should be able to get back the destroyed or lost BitLocker recovery key document file.
BLR BitLocker Wizard is a strong data recovery program that can easily get back lost files, partitions, and drives from the desktop, the recycle bin, empty space, and various storage devices. With BLR BitLocker Wizard Bootable Edition, you can also get back your files even if you can’t get into the system.
With the BLR BitLocker Wizard, here’s how to get back the lost BitLocker restore key.
Step 1: Start the BLR program and go to the main screen. From the top menu, click on Data Recovery.
Step 2: Pick out the place where the BitLocker recovery key document file is kept, then click on Scan. Make sure you plug the USB flash drive into your computer before you use it to store the file. We’ll use the Desktop as an example here.
Step 3: This tool will then begin to scan the area you chose. Once you find the BitLocker document file, click the Pause or Stop icon to stop the process. Then, check the boxes next to the file and click Save. You can also quickly find the file by pressing the Find button, typing BitLocker into the search field, and pressing the Find button again.
Step 4: Choose a place to save the recovered file in the pop-up window, then click OK to confirm your choice. Then finish this process by following the on-screen instructions.
Watch out:
Don’t save the restored data back on the drive it came from. Choose a different drive to store it on instead.
If you don’t, you might overwrite the lost or deleted info.
The fifth step is to open the directory where you saved the restored file and use the BitLocker recovery key to get into the encrypted drive.
How do you fix it if you’ve lost the BitLocker return key? How do I get back the BitLocker restore key that I lost? Look at this post right now to find the answers!
To tweet, click here
What Do You Think?
This post lists six easy ways to fix the problem of forgetting your BitLocker restore password. You can also use the BLR BitLocker Wizard to try to find a lost BitLocker restore key. Of course, if you know of better ways to solve this issue, please share them in the comments. If you are having trouble with the BLR bitlocker software, you can also email us at support@blrtools.com.
Also Read : Know About BitLocker Encryption on Windows Dell Computers
