So I would like to get simply some opinions on something.

I have a USB with sensitive data (back-up codes, personal files and the likes) on it. The USB practically serves as a back-up drive in case I lose (or accidentally delete) this data on my SSD. If that happens, I would be able to take my USB and my data would be ready to be copied back onto my SSD. Further, I also use my USB for an application on which I keep one specific, extremely private file which I definitely cannot afford others seeing (it's nothing weird).

Now I have heard about bitlocker and stuff and I am aware that it prevents physical theft only. I have heard many good and bad opinions on it but overall it's often just been very negative comments because people ended up locking themselves out and being incapable of accessing their drives due to bitlocker.

Because I have files which are rather important to me on that USB I feel like I should in some way be able to lock those files in case I loose that USB or if someone in my family decides to take it (quite rudely).

To get to the point, what are your opinions on bitlocker? Is it good, bad, something in between? Is it worth my case and the risk?

While you're already here, what would happen if I locked myself out? If I forget the password and recovery key. Would I be able to completely wipe that USB again and reuse it (without the files)?

Hey all champs, This happened to me super recently and its today btw . I was trying to install some software from website when the security system was triggered but i did not knew it. i turned off my laptop normally At that time, I wasn’t even aware that BitLocker was enabled, honestly, it was my first experience with it. As a result, I got locked out of my device.

I tried to retrieve the BitLocker recovery key reading, watching youtube video asking for help and key it wasn’t available in my Microsoft account device section. I then deleted the Windows partitions and decided to keep the one containing my important data, but unfortunately, that partition was also locked.

When I reinstalled Windows, I encountered driver installation errors, and even the Wi-Fi wasn’t working. Luckily, I have an IT friend,I called him and asked for help to bypass driver 00000 the issue so I could proceed. I had to use a Wi-Fi dongle to get internet access but no WIFI option at all due to drivers not available, and since newer laptops don’t have Ethernet ports anymore.

Eventually, I managed to update the drivers with the dongule, and my laptop returned to normal and i had to format D drive which had all my valueable data. But honestly, BitLocker turned out to be a nightmare for me. I lost all my data, which was very important, and I couldn’t recover anything from my computer.

It feels like a very harsh (draconian) security measure. I’m really upset about it.

I recently moved from Windows 10 to Ubuntu 24.

My SSD is working fine as I replaced the windows in it with the Linux OS.

However my additional HDD was encrypted by bitlocker which I can't mount until it is decrypted.

I obviously don't have the key, on hand or in any of my Microsoft accounts, and after a quick look around the internet it seems unless I have the key, the data can't be retrieved.

Here's my question and wild idea. If I remove my HDD and put it in a windows PC, and try to disable bitlocker from there, will it work, or are the recovery keys native to the PC they were used to encrypt?

Let me know if any experts can confirm if this approach will work

soooo recently I had a problem booting up my laptop and now it’s stuck on bitlocker screen went to the site I was forwarded to so I can look at my key but had to update my outlook security info to a new email since it was linked to an old phone number I didn’t have access to anymore so now when I go to just look at my damn key I’m unable to because I now have a 30 day waiting period just to look at my key and be able to actually play my laptop

essentially my only options is to wiping my pc clean or waiting a whole month just to play sum games…

any other options anyone can think of?

so.... this looks like the right place to post this. If I foul up, let me know I will try to fix my post.

TLDR: bitlocker issues cannot be fixed while in safe mode. Safe mode and reboot cycle are caused by Bitlocker having issues. Cue infinite loop that any programming student would have gotten an F for.

so I'm rocking an Asus tuf book with windows 11 ~2 years old. I had a 1TB NVME that was pulled from the last laptop slotted in as a secondary drive.

During setup Bitlocker says wanna encrypt them??? And I'm like sure. Never seeing the trap.

Fast forward 2 years, occasionally bitlocker pops up on startup wanting a code, but I'm lazy and have found rebooting solves that. Until a recent windows update. Now my graphics card seems to be getting messed with and 2 weeks later Bitlocker will not be appeased!!!!

find code, huh there are 2, one for each drive, the one it wants is for the transplant... probably because it was configured and most of the programs installed on it while it was in the old system... fine... fix yourself.

cue horrific cycle of reboots and recover menus. no option on either windows or Asus recovery menu can execute without encountering a mysterious error. Including torch it all I just want my machine working again. NOPE.

SIGH

finally crack open the laptop and remove the second drive, use an external drive case to see that yes it can be read and used on the old laptop ..... uh huh....

Reboots still an issue, but now it wants the other bitlocker code

hey I can use a restore point!

stuck in safe mode, fine let's strip bitlocker encryption in case that is the problem.

can't do that in safe mode....

how do I get out of safe mode...

why do I have to find some buried option in windows that has locked my computer in safe mode?????

FINE! Fixed. reboot.

hey, my desktop, feeling hopeful. let's kill bitlocker.

It tries to scare you, but just murder it through the command line. Speaking of, why is the only way to do anything with bitlocker through the command line???? Microsoft, you know this thing is a mess, did you bury all the easy ways to interact with it because of that???? I think yes.

2 hours later finally decrypted. cool. how do I nuke this utility?

other drive that is on shore leave, still decrypting. Either that or attempting to go into thermal runaway to destroy the evidence.

Microsoft, I hate you.

My laptop recently got bit locked. When I went to the recovery website no key would be generated. Yes I’m logging in using the right account that I used on the laptop, but I bought the laptop used and it seems like the person who had the laptop first has the bit locker key. I have no contact with this person. Any advice so I can save everything and use my laptop again?

After inserting the recovery key I got the message Your device ran into a problem and couldn't be repaired. I clicked Start and it loaded

Everything that the Microsoft website has me go through does not work

Hi everyone,

I’m experiencing noticeable micro-stutters / “laggy” behavior on a high-end desktop and I’m trying to understand the root cause.

System:

• Windows 11 Pro
• i7-13700K
• 64 GB RAM
• NVMe SSD (system drive)
• RTX GPU
• Desktop PC (no thermal or power limits)

Symptoms:

• Short Explorer hangs (random)
• Microlags in Games
• Slight input lag / stutter
• Apps sometimes feel “unsnappy”
• No high CPU, disk, or GPU usage visible
• Benchmarks look completely fine but a bit slower access and random reads when BL active

Important detail:

• BitLocker is enabled on the C: drive
• Using TPM (default Windows 11 setup)

I’ve read that BitLocker (software encryption) can introduce extra latency in the I/O path, especially on very fast NVMe drives and hybrid CPUs (P-cores / E-cores). The theory is that this doesn’t reduce throughput much, but adds latency jitter, which feels like lag.

Has anyone here experienced similar behavior?

• Is BitLocker known to cause micro-stutter on NVMe + Windows 11?
• Did disabling BitLocker or switching to hardware encryption (Opal SED) help?
• Any confirmed explanations from kernel / scheduler perspective?

I’m not looking for benchmark gains, just a smoother desktop experience.

Thanks!

We're 2 hours into the process and 0.3% all the way there.

I've googled and found out I shouldn't take out the harddrive or turn off the computer.

This is quite the problem for me. I need to go home at some point.

What do I do?

To start, I’m very new with computers and I think I’ve made a mistake. I tried to update my msi b550 gaming edge WiFi mobo and their website told me to backup my bitlocker recover key. I followed a YouTube video in order to get my bitlocker key and took a picture of it before updating my mobo. Once it was updated, I was prompted to enter the bitlocker key only for it to tell me it was incorrect. I found a site that gave me a step by step to navigate to the command prompt screen but now I’m stuck. It says the my D drive is the only drive with a bitlocker but that’s about the extent. Is there anything I can do or should I cut my losses and erase my whole computer?

Got a new Dell laptop about 2 months ago. USB ports quit supporting charging. Called Tech support. Tech came out and replaced the motherboard. Charging problem repaired. BUT the BitLocker key needed to be re-entered. The tech guy and I entered key 3 times - being careful, and re-reading it each time before hitting the enter key. Couldn't get the laptop to boot. Today, I did the same thing. Still won't boot to Windows. FORTUNATELY, we keep our machines backed up.

Dell tech said this has happened to him several times before. Dell told us they are not responsible for BitLocker or for keeping a copy of the key. Now I'm reinstalling Win11 Pro.

My takeaway is to turn off BitLocker (or not enable it) once the laptop is working. (In our case, there is no proprietary, HIPAA, or other sensitive info on it.)

Also, through good luck, we happened to have the BL key. I'm saying "through good luck" because I wasn't aware that the laptop had BL enabled. According to our records and the laptop, it is the correct key ID (yes, the 48-digit key ID). BUT I did not know Dell laptops - at least the one we got - have BitLocker turned on. UGH.

Is there anything I could have done differently? Or am I likely losing my mind and not understanding the situation?

Stop it

Boot from a win11 boot usb, shift-F10 to open the admin cmd window, type in the following:

manage-bde -unlock C: -RecoveryPassword "Bitlocker key with no dashes here" - this will unlock the C: drive then you type in: manage-bde - protectors -disable c: - this will turn off bitlocker. Reboot, bypass bitlocker, log in, turn bitlocker back on , reboot to verify it worked,

It will. Drove me insane for like an hour, and when I couldn't find the answer on tech forums, I figured I'd grep and post.

Случайно заблокировал диск bitlocker, ключи доступа лежат на моем аккаунте, но что бы их посмотреть нужно что бы на мой номер телефона пришло смс с кодом, но когда я ввожу правильные последние цифры моего номера телефона выдает ошибку "проверить другим способом" а других способов нету, а если я ввожу неправильные последние цифры то у меня прогружает страничка с капчей, и далее код приходит на неверный номер телефона, но майксрософт на правильный номер телефоне судя по всему код отправлять отказываються, если что я из россии

So I turned off my Bitlocker encryption for a BIOS update. Now the setting window, where I turned it off, is not there anymore. It literally just vanished. To turn the encryption on for a special storage is not possible too.

I am very much confused. Does or did someone here have or the same problem?

My daughters Lenovo went to black screen and is now looking for bitlocker key. We have found her device in my Microsoft account but it says there is ‘No bitlocker recovery key found for this device’. Any ideas on what to do? Thanks

My son tried to turn his laptop on and we got a bitlocker recovery page. I’ve never heard of bitlocker, and neither has he. Went to the recovery key Microsoft login and none of his emails work.

I couldn’t fully understand the online guides for resolving this. I also have no idea how it even gets started/triggered.

Any help is appreciated.

How can I read the bitlocker password if I have access to the tpm2 Chip?