Windows 10 reset no Bitlocker Key stuck

paloverde88 on 05/03/2017 - 22:01

Hi

Silly old me tried to refresh my Lenovo cheap S100 like I always have with other previous windows and for some strange reason this OEM ask for a Bitlocker recovery key which I have no idea what it is. It won't even let me choose boot option to do a fresh install of Bootable USB Win 10 I am just stuck how can it be so secure all of a sudden.

So it's now sitting on blue screen asking for recovery key won't let me do anything.

Maybe members may have encountered this problem before and had to throw away an otherwise just 9 months old Atom 2 gig's ram 32 gigs eMMC glorified plastic.

Computing

Comments

  • chinezejew on 05/03/2017 - 22:11

    Is there still a windows partition in the ssd?
    Can you format the ssd?

    Place it in an enclosure to format externally?

    Try another ssd in the laptop?

    Or is this a security feature ms has inbuilt?

  • paloverde88 on 05/03/2017 - 22:38

    It's eMMC not even ssd how do I isolate this partition when Bitlocker has greyed out the bios setup configuration it also would not let me rearrange booty option to boot USB first before hdd can you replace eMMC no one sells eMMC or do they?

    When I do Cmd thru troubleshooting and advanced it shows only X drive probably virtual I'm sure Lenovo had windows install hidden somewhere

  • aragornelessar on 06/03/2017 - 00:14

    From my experience, if you're formatting and overwriting the drive, you shouldn't be asked for a Bitlocker key. Bitlocker is asked as a protection against unauthorised access of the contents on the hard drive such as trying to access the Bitlocker encrypted drive on another computer. It also gets triggered if the motherboard or another significant piece of hardware changes (as it thinks the drive is being accessed from another computer).

    Boot options (USB/Network/HDD) should be before Bitlocker prompts - if you boot into a USB install of Win10, the Windows install process should start without Bitlocker prompts. Can't remember if there were prompts when formatting the hard drive, but I've installed Win10 from a USB onto a Bitlocker encrypted SSD without problems before. Well, assuming you're okay to lose the data on the encrypted drive. If you're not, then that's a problem from that perspective

  • paloverde88 on 06/03/2017 - 00:19

    Thanks I'll try boot USB again shame as Lenovo does not help nor does Microsoft and I have never used Bitlocker before and out of the blue it demands that I provide recovery key but even as the owner of the drive I have no idea what they are asking for.
    I never thought Bitlocker intercept even at boot bios level, strange. Won't even allow me to format. Weird

  • paloverde88 on 06/03/2017 - 21:08

    Tried everything it won't let me even start on Bootable USB new windows 10 install so in to the bin it went as eMMC unlike ssd cannot be replaced.
    Oh well $254 for 9 months
    Ordered a Huawei T2 pro 7 LTE android.

  • donnot on 06/03/2017 - 22:55
    +1

    I had the same issue with my Vivotab Note 8 a while back, but was able to recover the key from my Microsoft account. If you've logged into MS at some point on that laptop, you should be able to visit this link, sign in, and retrieve the key.

  • alvian on 07/03/2017 - 06:25

    Not sure if the BitLocker recovery keys FAQ is of any help. The last section mentioned "I don’t have a key. What else can I do?"

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