Remove BitLocker on a Dell laptop

[alexander.o]

I'm trying to remove BitLocker so I can install Windows 10 on a drive in a Dell laptop, specifically a Latitude E7420.

 

The data on the laptop is NOT important. I'd actually like to format the entire drive. 

 

I do have the BIOS unlocked. I do have physical access to the laptop.

 

I do not have the password to the user. I do not have any BitLocker keys. 

 

How can I remove BitLocker? 

 

[TetraSky]

Boot to the USB drive containing the Windows 10 ISO/installer and it should let you format it from there.

 

If, for some reason, you can't do that.
Boot onto a Linux Live Install to prevent Windows from throwing some random error about not wanting to format it.

[Eigenvektor]

You could boot a Linux live USB/CD and then use something like GParted to delete all partitions.

[alexander.o]

1 minute ago, TetraSky said:

Boot to the USB drive containing the Windows 10 ISO/installer and it should let you format it from there.

I tried that - I couldn't install Windows on the drive due to BitLocker being there. 

 

When I hit repair this computer, I needed some BitLocker key thing to be allowed to access the drive via cmd. 

[alexander.o]

3 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

You could boot a Linux live USB/CD and then use something like GParted to delete all partitions.

That was my plan. I'm not familiar with Linux - do you have a guide?

[TetraSky]

16 minutes ago, alexander.o said:

That was my plan. I'm not familiar with Linux - do you have a guide?

Oh it's super easy.
Geting Gparted like Eigen said is probably easier for your purpose

https://gparted.org/download.php

Get this ISO
Download gparted-live-1.3.0-1-amd64.iso

Then download RUFUS

https://rufus.ie/en_US/

 

Opening Rufus, keep everything on default, just press Select to look up the ISO of Gparted and press Start if the selected Device at the top is correct.

 

Then you just boot to it on POST.

Delete the entire partition of the drive (this will also remove the recovery partition.... But lets face it, not a big loss and a clean install is always best over using a bloatware filled OS)
Press New on it, change the file system to NTFS and Apply.
After that, you can install Windows.

 

This video might help if you prefer visual help on how to use it

 

[Eigenvektor]

6 minutes ago, alexander.o said:

That was my plan. I'm not familiar with Linux - do you have a guide?

You can use pretty much any live USB, for example from Manjaro: https://manjaro.org/support/firststeps/

 

This will boot into a Manjaro live image and offer to install it. Simply close the installer and open "GParted" from the start menu. You should be able to see the disk(s) and the partitions that are on them. You should be able to right click and delete them.

 

[alexander.o]

16 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Oh it's super easy.
Geting Gparted like Eigen said is probably easier for your purpose

https://gparted.org/download.php

Get this ISO
Download gparted-live-1.3.0-1-amd64.iso

Then download RUFUS

https://rufus.ie/en_US/

 

Opening Rufus, keep everything on default, just press Select to look up the ISO of Gparted and press Start if the selected Device at the top is correct.

 

Then you just boot to it on POST.

Delete the entire partition of the drive (this will also remove the recovery partition.... But lets face it, not a big loss and a clean install is always best over using a bloatware filled OS)
Press New on it, change the file system to NTFS and Apply.
After that, you can install Windows.

 

This video might help if you prefer visual help on how to use it

 

Followed your instructions: BitLocker is gone! Installing Windows 10 now, and hopefully I won't hit any more problems. Thanks a lot!

[TetraSky]

1 minute ago, alexander.o said:

Followed your instructions: BitLocker is gone! Installing Windows 10 now, and hopefully I won't hit any more problems. Thanks a lot!

Excellent news!

[alexander.o]

1 minute ago, TetraSky said:

Excellent news!

The laptop died, as the battery was empty. lol

[TetraSky]

1 minute ago, alexander.o said:

The laptop died, as the battery was empty. lol

Always plug it in when installing windows.

[alexander.o]

3 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Always plug it in when installing windows.

It wasn't that bad. The install took about 10 minutes, even with that mishap. Helped my school install Windows on 60+ Core i3-powered (8145U) laptops, and each one took 30 minutes at least, and most had an error somewhere in the process, and had to start again. There were also some HP x360 Pentium laptops, they took 2 hours.....