Solved BitLocker To Go - won't unlock, HP Stream 7 - Key is OK

Hi all,

I purchased a 64GB MicroSD card for my HP Stream 7 tablet (running Windows 8.1 Home) as storage is very limited on the device - my intention was/is to store all my OneDrive files (currently around 16GB worth of data) on the SD card so I could have all my files available offline. However, with it being a tablet and conscious of its portable nature, I wanted to encrypt the MicroSD card using BitLocker (the C: drive is encrypted on the tablet by default) - but this edition of Windows 8.1 won't let me encrypt the SD card.

So I put the SD card into my Windows 10 Pro machine, and it allowed me to encrypt it and I have the key (written down as well as stored in my Microsoft account) - it took a long time to encrypt. When I plug the SD card back into my tablet, it prompts me to enter the password I set when encrypting the SD card on the Windows 10 Pro machine. But it isn't recognised. I've also tried the 48-digit recovery key, but this does not work either - it just reads "The password entered is incorrect" - I can assure that it is correct! If I plug it into my Windows 10 machine, it again asks for the password - which it accepts!

Is there anything I can do to get the BitLocker encrypted card to be unlocked on my Windows 8.1 tablet??

If not, is there any way to get Windows 8.1 standard to allow me to encrypt the MicroSD card volume?

Thank you for any feedback and help

Just thought I'd update my (unanswered) thread!

This is now solved -

When I first encrypted the card in Windows 10 Pro, I did so via the Command Line, which invoked a dialog box giving me the % of the encryption. I thought this was the only way to enable BitLocker encryption.

As it turns out, if I'd gone through the Control Panel applet, it'd have started a wizard, and one of the questions was whether to enable "compatibility mode", as the other mode was for Windows 10 1511 build only. Formatting the drive to NTFS and enabling this compatibility mode means my MicroSD card is now functional in Windows 8.1 (or indeed any Windows with BitLocker)

Alex