HDD is locked by Bitlocker on the laptop with windows 7

Sofia Melnikova 96 Reputation points
2021-03-10T21:32:42.423+00:00

My external HDD is locked by Bitlocker on the laptop with Windows 7. The error message is: "Error recovering disk : A recovery key was not found on this drive. The drive can not be unlocked." I have never used Bitlocker to lock my HDD. I have got neither key nor password. On the other laptop with Windows 10 the external HDD works well without any error. Could you please help me with this problem? What should I do to open my external HDD on the laptop with Windows 7?

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Windows
A family of Microsoft operating systems that run across personal computers, tablets, laptops, phones, internet of things devices, self-contained mixed reality headsets, large collaboration screens, and other devices.
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  1. Sofia Melnikova 96 Reputation points
    2021-03-11T07:00:19.107+00:00

    Thank you very much for your answer.
    I can recover data from my HDD disk by opening it on the laptop with windows 10. The external HDD disk works properly on the new laptop with windows 10 and I can work with all the data it contain. The problem occurs only on my old laptop with windows 7. So the same HDD disk works well on one laptop and is locked by BitLocker on the other one.


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  1. Teemo Tang 11,396 Reputation points
    2021-03-11T01:48:08.517+00:00

    First, BitLocker won't allow us to put the "recovery key" on the drive being encrypted. This is a built in safety feature to prevent you from installing the key on the encrypted since you can't access said drive without it.
    Secondly, BitLocker will not automatic encrypt drive unless we use Microsoft account login, you know, Windows 7 doesn’t support Microsoft account login. You need to recall who ever touched your laptop.
    Finally, if you've lost the BitLocker recovery key or password, the only way to access the drive is wiping it. If the data in this external disk is very important, you need to take a chance on data recovery company.

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