Finding Bitlocker recovery code

Question

I have an HP EliteBook 840 G2, Windows 10 home. I want to update BIOS but I saw the warning about Bitlocker and that I should have a recovery code because BIOS has to turn off bitlocker to install. In my Microsoft Account it says "BitLocker ON" but I go to find the code and get this message from my Microsoft account: "You don't have any BitLocker recovery keys uploaded to your Microsoft account." 

I did run CMD as an admin and got the following with the -status command.

FOLKS, THE BOTTOM LINE QUESTIONS ARE:

• DO I HAVE BITLOCKER TURNED ON? (BELOW, IT SHOWS NO CODES)
• HOW DO I GET THE UNLOCK CODE???? 

Answer 1

Hi, thanks for posting your question to the community! My name is David an independent advisor and I am here to help you.

Answering your question, if your laptop came with Windows 10 Home from the factory, isn't possible that you have activated Bitlokcer, because this feature is not available in that edition of Windows.

* It is possible that the PC brought Bitlocker activated.

1. I share the ways to find the Bitlocker recovery key:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/453047...

2. If you cannot obtain it in any of the ways mentioned above, I recommend that you contact the vendor or manufacturer of the PC.

Let me know if the shared information has been useful or if you still need more help, I will be waiting for your answer.

Answer 2

The laptop originally had Windows 7 Pro (an old office machine) for which I purchased and upgraded to Windows 10 Home. I am pretty sure the drive was wiped to enable the install of 10 onto the machine. Where does BitLocker reside? Is it in a prom or nvram that doesn't get wiped even with a complete install of a new OS?

Answer 3

IF Bitlocker did remain on the machine, is there a way to turn it off so I can update my BIOS (and any other upgrades?)

Answer 4

David, one more question (thank you so much for your initial reply)

Did more digging and went into Control Panel-Security and while I do not see a specific "Bitlocker Encryption" option I did see "Device Encryption" and when I click on "Back up your recovery key" I find I can save this text to a USB stick:

BitLocker Recovery Key 0A00F0F4-D175-4C8F-83BE-1406899204B0

IS THIS MY BITLOCKER KEY??? It's only 36 characters long (if you include the dashes) and I thought the Bitlocker key was 48 characters long.

I also looked at the Computer Management app and see my 237GB OS disk partition shows it has BitLocker. Yet I cannot access the code (unless the above "recovery key is actually it)

Answer 5

Okay okay okay...

When I looked at the file I saved to my USB stick, I saw a proper 48 digit recovery string.

Then I went into CMD prompt as an Administrator and typed:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>manage-bde -unlock c: -RecoveryPassword 058410-439186-150953-161865-574299-711733-132594-358182

This was what I saw when I hit RETURN:

BitLocker Drive Encryption: Configuration Tool version 10.0.19041

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

ERROR: The volume is already unlocked.

This would appear to conflict with the Computer Management App which, as you can see, says the OSDisk c: IS BitLocker Encrypted.

So I'm back to my original question  - does my PC have Bitlocker enabled? If so, how do I turn it off? Or, since I appear to have my Bitlocker recovery code, just go ahead and update my BIOS (which turns off Bitlocker which I would have to re-enable which I can only do with the code)

Thanks

David