BitLocker crashed while encrypting a boot drive, how can I recover it?

Question

I'm running Win11 Pro, everything is up to date and I was encrypting a 1tb SSD boot drive.

I decided to enable BitLocker on my boot drive. While enabling it I received a message saying that it may slow the computer down while using it. "No big deal" I thought, since I was just browsing the internet and watching YouTube.

Suddenly my video froze, no webpages wanted to load, but I was still able to close out of apps. The start menu worked once, but once I clicked out of it I wasn't able to get it to pop back up.

CTRL-ALT-DEL and CTRL-Shift-ESC did not respond, the only thing that worked was my mouse cursor, but nothing responded to any keyboard or mouse input other than my cursor moving across the screen.

I thought that it needed time to work so I let it sit for ~24 hours. After ~24 hours, the computer did not act any differently. I went online and read a few pages saying that the BitLocker would resume even after a power loss, so I felt safe to restart the PC by holding the power button.

When the PC booted up I was greeted with a blue screen of death saying:

> The operating system couldn't be loaded because the system registry file is missing or contains errors

> File: \Windows\System\System32\config\system > Error code: 0xc0000185

and the options to hit enter to try again, F1 to enter Recovery Environment, F8 for Startup Settings, and ESC for UEFI-Firmware Settings

Hitting F8 didn't do anything, ESC just brings me to my BIOS which I have no idea what to do with, and F1 restarts the boot process and greets me with the following BSOD:

> A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.

> Error code: 0xc000000f with the same options as before I do have the recovery key saved, but I don't know how to proceed with getting my system back.

After following the steps on this page: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/microsoft-problem-of-bitlocker/232ee288-0d51-4350-84d8-9aaa05a43038

I am met with the following BSOD:

> The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

> File: \Windows\system32\winload.efi

> Error code; 0xc0000225

I did some more digging and followed the steps on this page: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/repair-windows-with-bitlocker-enabled-error-code/7e2ca9a7-5328-4385-b559-1cd9f9f03daa

Method 1 resulted in this: https://i.imgur.com/jnAAa28.jpg

It didn't fix my issue and I received the same 225 error, so I continued with Method 2, which resulted in this: https://i.imgur.com/yuRWZnp.jpg

Seeing as all the steps resulted in a failure, it's no surprise that my issue isn't fixed.

I also have a laptop with Win11 Pro installed. I removed the SSD from the desktop and installed it in an M.2 enclosure to connect it to my laptop. When I connect it to my laptop, it recognizes it as an encrypted drive by showing the drive icon with a lock over it, but trying to open it gives me the following message:

> The BitLocker encryption on this drive isn't compatible with your version of Windows. Try opening the drive using a newer version of Windows.

I tried running the command "manage-bde -unlock F: -recoverypassword <password>" on my laptop and received the message

>ERROR: the password failed to unlock volume F:

I'm 100% confident that the password was entered properly, I also tried with and without the dashes.

Any ideas on how to proceed?

Answer 1

Hello, NetChemica

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

It seems like the BitLocker encryption process has caused some corruption in the system files, which is preventing your computer from booting up properly. Since you've tried multiple ways, the only option left is to reinstall Windows from a USB drive:

How to install Windows from a Flash Drive | Microsoft Learn

After that you can search for some third-party data recovery programs online to see if you can recover your saved files.

As for the issue with unlocking the drive on your laptop, it seems like your laptop has a different version of Windows than your desktop, and it cannot recognize the BitLocker encryption on your drive. This is a common error that can occur when you try to access a BitLocker encrypted drive in different Windows OS versions. You may need to use a Windows version that is compatible with the BitLocker encryption on the drive. Alternatively, you can try using a different computer that has the same version of Windows as the one on which the drive was encrypted.

Yuhao Li

Microsoft Community Technical Support

Answer 2

Yuhao Li,

Thank you for the quick reply.

> As for the issue with unlocking the drive on your laptop, it seems like your laptop has a different version of Windows than your desktop, and it cannot recognize the BitLocker encryption on your drive. 

The desktop and laptop are both running Win11 Pro with all current updates. My (inexperienced) theory is that the drive was not encrypted as portable media and may be hardware locked, but I don't know the ins and outs of how BitLocker works.

I did order another SSD for the desktop that I'll install Win11 Pro on. Do you know if booting from a different drive in that desktop would allow me to have "easier" access to the data or would it not matter?

Answer 3

You are correct - if the drive is not encrypted as portable media, there may be a hardware lock situation. Typically, if you install a new Win11 Pro system on the desktop and boot from a new SSD, you may have an easier time accessing the data, as the new system might not be affected by the same file system corruption as the original system. You can try this approach and use data recovery software to attempt to access your saved files. Good luck and happy new year!