Bitlocker USB *or* Password possible?

[Car712]

Hi, so I have been trying to figure this out for a bit now, im trying to do bitlocker encryption on my NVME drive, which has Windows on it. The only issue is that I want to be able to use a password as sort of a 'backup' method if the USB isint plugged in. In other words, if im at my PC and the USB is plugged in and I rebooted it, it would just use the USB to authorize it. But if I were to take the USB out and reboot my PC, it would then prompt for a password. Is this possible in any way, I haven't found anything online.

[Lurick]

I'll state up front that I could be wrong about this, but I believe if you don't have a TPM module on your motherboard then you have to enter the password every time you boot up. Not sure if there is a way to do it with a USB key though as like an unlock mechanism.

[Car712]

5 minutes ago, Lurick said:

I'll state up front that I could be wrong about this, but I believe if you don't have a TPM module on your motherboard then you have to enter the password every time you boot up. Not sure if there is a way to do it with a USB key though as like an unlock mechanism.

Mhm, I have been able to get password bitlocker working on this PC before (since it dosent have a TPM module), but I cant seem to find any option to use a USB also

[MarbleHornets]

You can actually set up bitlocker on a motherboard without a TPM, and from my understanding is that USB is pretty much the only way to be able to do that since bitlocker doesn't have anywhere else to store the encryption keys. Try this tutorial and see if it helps/works for you.

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/6229/how-to-use-bitlocker-on-drives-without-tpm/

[Car712]

I figured out how to do it, just enable the 'Allow Bitlocker without a compatible TPM" group policy, then go to encrypt the drive and select PASSWORD (not USB), enter your password, then press the button to *save the file to a USB*. Now, once its encrypted it should simply continue booting up if the USB is plugged in, and if not, request the password.