Help, My bitlocker Key-ID on my microsoft account does not match my harddrive.

Question

Hello all, My old Windows computer (Dell xps 15, 2018) recently died, in such a way that it won't power-up at all anymore. To recover the files I removed the harddrive and mounted it to be copied to my new computer. When opening the windows explorer screen, I see it is working and that the drive is healthy. To open it requires a bitlocker key. So I went into my microsoft account to get my bitlocker key, but strangely enough I see that the old computer is listed, including information that the last active day was the last day it was "alive", but when I look at the Key-ID of the listed harddrive it does not match the Key-ID on the harddrive I have mounted to be copied. (The device only has 1 harddrive and the drive was not partitioned). To my knowledge I have no other accounts with Microsoft, I bought the device new so it was not previously owned by someone else. Does anybody know how I can I access my files?

Kind regards,

Tex

***moved from Windows / Windows 10 / Windows update, recovery, and backup***

Answer 1

Hello Texlion,

if the BitLocker recovery key listed in your Microsoft account does not match the Key-ID on the hard drive you have mounted, it's possible that the recovery key was not backed up to your Microsoft account or that it was not enabled on the old computer.

In this case, you may need to try other methods to recover the BitLocker recovery key. Here are some options you can try:

1. Check if you have a printed or saved copy of the BitLocker recovery key. If you saved the key to a USB drive or printed it out, you can use it to unlock the drive.
2. Check if you have a Microsoft account associated with the old computer. If you used a Microsoft account to sign in to the old computer, the BitLocker recovery key may be stored in your OneDrive account or in the Azure Active Directory.

If none of above steps work, you may need to contact Microsoft team (Contact Us - Microsoft Support) for further help.

Best regards,

Lei