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Bitlocker options

Barry Callaghan 0 Reputation points
2026-01-26T02:16:41.26+00:00

I bought a laptop with Win11 Home pre-installed. It must of had Bitlocker options before an update because my internal drive and my USB external drive are encrypted. I have the keys and have had to unlock my drive often on boot to use repair. I want to turn off Bitlocker on my USB drive to be able to use it on other machines but I don't have the options for it because I am on Home and not Pro. How are Microsoft able to hold my drives ransom like this? It is a tactic used by ransomware.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Settings
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  1. Alexandr S 105.2K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-01-29T10:48:25.6566667+00:00

    Hello, Barry Callaghan.

    Please specify whether a third-party antivirus is installed on your PC, in particular Kaspersky?

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  2. Gunasekar N 67,945 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-01-27T05:42:09.95+00:00

    Barry, I completely understand your frustration.

    To clarify, you don’t necessarily have to purchase the Pro edition. If you have access to another computer that already has Windows Pro installed (a friend’s or colleague’s device), you may be able to temporarily connect your drive to that PC and unlock it using your recovery key and turn off the encryption.

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  3. Neil D 33,090 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-01-26T16:43:20.24+00:00

    A USB drive cannot be encrypted by Home edition. The system disk is probably encrypted using Device Encryption.

    Have you ever used your USB drive with Pro at work or school/university?

    Could you access Pro edition from anywhere?

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  4. Gunasekar N 67,945 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2026-01-26T03:00:03.6066667+00:00

    Hello, thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

    Device encryption is a feature on Windows Home PCs that automatically locks and encrypts your fixed and system drives. This may be why both drives are locked.

    Reference:

    Device Encryption in Windows

    To turn off encryption,

    Connect the USB drive to a PC running Windows 11 Pro.

    Then, open an elevated Command Prompt (Run as administrator) to unlock the drive and permanently turn off BitLocker encryption.

    To check the status of BitLocker, 

    manage-bde -status

    To unlock the drive, 

    manage-bde -unlock C: -RecoveryPassword YOUR-48-DIGIT-KEY

    Replace C with the drive letter that is locked.

    Also, replace 48-DIGIT-KEY with the actual BitLocker recovery key stored in your Microsoft account.

    If the hard drive is unlocked, you can disable BitLocker encryption by executing the following command:

    manage-bde -off C:

    The protection will be turned off.

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