Windows 8.1 and Bitlocker

[MartinC]

I am hoping someone out their can help, I have personally never used bit locker so my experience in this area is non existent, I have been doing some googling and found very little help.

A friend of mine has lost his key and backup file, and has asked me if I can either recover it, or at the very least just wipe and re-install the OS, I can not even get the laptop to boot off a USB boot device to reinstall windows. Is this a case of throw the HD away or is there a way forward?

Any help you can give would be appreciated?

Thanks
MartinC

[WRATH OF BOD]

its funny, i just got an Asus transformer with the same problem, the kid that owns it thought he was doing a good thing, NOT...will not boot from usb or into recovery & will not take the key for bitlocker..
i have been looking around for help on tinterwebs but no joy here

[Doctor Who]

http://rorymon.com/blog/?p=646 - I Lost My Bitlocker Recovery Key

cant you take the hard drive out pop it in a caddy - format it via a different pc and then pop it back in ?

[Mickey]

As above
Format it and hopefully you can get an OS back on it.

[evilsatan]

You may need to disable secure boot in the BIOS to boot to another device.

[MartinC]

Thanks for the feed back, I will try disabling the secure boot tonight.

Don't really want to pull it a part as it's a very small ee book.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[WRATH OF BOD]

http://rorymon.com/blog/?p=646 - I Lost My Bitlocker Recovery Key

cant you take the hard drive out pop it in a caddy - format it via a different pc and then pop it back in ?

i would if wasnt a tablet

[MartinC]

I have tried disabling secure boot and a few other random things, but the laptop is still in the same state. Does anyone have any other ideas before I tell the owner its now an oversized paper weight?

[evilsatan]

I would happily take a look at it for you mate, I would imagine you can remove the drive, format, boot to an installation media and put a clean OS on. Only thing that I can think of that would possibly hinder you is a TPM chip (can't remember if they cause problems). What make and model is it?

[Over Carl]

This may be a pointless step, but I'm thinking in this scenario it may be an idea to remove the drive and stick it in another machine as others have mentioned, (with secure boot, tpm, etc, all disabled), then boot from something like a DBAN CD (can get for free off the net), use that to totally wipe the drive in question, then put it back in the tablet and start again so the tablet should believe it has a new hard drive fitted.

[WRATH OF BOD]

This may be a pointless step, but I'm thinking in this scenario it may be an idea to remove the drive and stick it in another machine as others have mentioned, (with secure boot, tpm, etc, all disabled), then boot from something like a DBAN CD (can get for free off the net), use that to totally wipe the drive in question, then put it back in the tablet and start again so the tablet should believe it has a new hard drive fitted.

the tablet dont have removable drive, the ssd is part of the main board & the tablet is a sealed unit.

[plug1]

Try corrupt the os , pull the power when it's booting up a few times ,see what recovery options it through up
I take it it's win 10 ?

[wakadoo]

can you plug an external drive into it, set up windows on that as the main drive then format the other drive as it will technically be a slave drive.

just an idea..

[WRATH OF BOD]

nope only one USB Port & Only boots into bitlocker log in screen, Locks up so you cant even use touch screen or keyboard

[TotallyRandom]

Disable Secure boot, Enable Legacy boot rom you also might need to change the UFEI settings