Unlock secondary BitLocker encrypted drive

vlatkovr

New Member
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3
Hi,

I have 2 drives on my PC. One SSD where Windows 8.1 is installed and a secondary HDD for movies and stuff.
The SSD is Microsoft edrive compliant so I just enabled BitLocker encryption and set a password, i.e. Pass1.

Later I also encrypted the secondary HDD and DID NOT save the recovery keys when doing that. I clicked smth like Automatically unlock or smth when doing that as the secondary drive was always available when logging in to Windows later. No need to enter a separate password.

Now, I formatted the primary SSD and re installed Windows 8.1 but now I don't have the recovery key for the secondary drive. Is all the data lost or I can somehow use the password to unlock it?

Thank You
 
Yea. If you haven't saved the recovery keys, it's lost. :(

If someone could un-encrypt with them, there wouldn't be much point in encrypting a drive in the first place
 
09_backup_file_encryption_key.png
Did you not get one of these messages?

Follow by this?
ilokencryptioncertificateissue_zpse309c445.png
It actually appears almost immediately within less than 1 minute after you encrypt something. Sadly there is not much you can do, just move on, and learn to backup encryption keys. Does Bit locker not do this? I don't personally know if it does, if it doesn't it SHOULD! I have a drive that is encrypted by Bitlocker as well, but I don't remember. I did some searching BitLocker recovery keys: Frequently asked questions - Windows Help? Maybe you "accidently" backed up online?

Do you have a system image of previous Windows installation?
 
Yes, Bitlocker prompts you to back up your key. At work, we have group policy that saves recovery key to your computer account object in Active Directory.

Should always keep a copy of this, and always separated from your computer.
 
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