Cannot Unlock BitLocker via Control Panel

Question

Hello,

Initially, I was able to access a BitLocker enabled hard drive by entering the key that I had from the initial encryption of the hard drive. After a reboot of my laptop I started to have issues with unlocking the hard drive.

When I click on the hard drive I need access to I receive the following message:

"There are no supported protectors on this drive. The drive can't be unlocked".

Here is the result of executing "manage-bde -status":

Volume D: [Label Unknown]

[Data Volume]

Size:                 Unknown GB 

BitLocker Version:    2.0 

Conversion Status:    Unknown 

Percentage Encrypted: Unknown% 

Encryption Method:    XTS-AES 128 

Protection Status:    Unknown 

Lock Status:          Locked 

Identification Field: Unknown 

Automatic Unlock:     Disabled 

Key Protectors: 

    TPM 

    Numerical Password

My understanding of this output is that I should be able to enter the key I have to access the drive, but that still results in the message above.

I have tried navigating to Control Panel and clicking the "Unlock drive" option without success.

I would greatly appreciate instruction to unlock this hard drive.

***moved from Windows / Windows 10 / Security and privacy***

Answer 1

Hi lemonlightCT,

to resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt by right-clicking on the Start menu and selecting "Command Prompt (Admin)".
2. Type "manage-bde -protectors -get D:" (without quotes) and press Enter. This will display a list of all the key protectors for the D: drive.
3. Look for the Numerical Password protector and make sure it is listed as "Active". If it is not, you can activate it by typing "manage-bde -protectors -enable D: -password" (without quotes) and pressing Enter. You will be prompted to enter the numerical password.
4. Once the Numerical Password protector is active, try unlocking the drive again using the key you have.

If the above steps do not work, you can try using the recovery key to unlock the drive. You can find the recovery key via follow the steps in Finding your BitLocker recovery key in Windows - Microsoft Support. To use the recovery key, follow these steps:

1. Open an elevated Command Prompt as described above.
2. Type "manage-bde -unlock D: -RecoveryKey <path to recovery key file>" (without quotes) and press Enter. Replace "<path to recovery key file>" with the actual path to the recovery key file.
3. If the recovery key is valid, the drive should unlock and you should be able to access your data.

Hope it helps.

Best regards,

Lei

Answer 2

Volume E: [Label Unknown]

[Data Volume]

Size:                 Unknown GB 

BitLocker Version:    2.0 

Conversion Status:    Unknown 

Percentage Encrypted: Unknown% 

Encryption Method:    XTS-AES 128 

Protection Status:    Unknown 

Lock Status:          Locked 

Identification Field: Unknown 

Automatic Unlock:     Disabled 

Key Protectors: 

    TPM 

I dont have numerical password.

when i try to get key ID for first 8 characters with 'manage-bde -protectors -get',

it is giving me error: A volume letter is required.

Answer 3

This command is not working for me. Any suggestions?

C:\Windows\System32>manage-bde -protectors -enable D: -password

BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.22621

Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

ERROR: Invalid Syntax.

"-password" was not understood.

Answer 4

Please post your question in a new thread, thanks.