Bitlocker password suddenly doesn't work

[Poinkachu]

So, my friend called me and said suddenly the bitlocker password he usually use to unlock his 2 portable drives suddenly doesn't work.

Since he can't find the recovery key I told him to consider everything inside those two drives gone.

(And no, he didn't upload the key to his Microsoft Account)

 

I'm curious as to what could be the cause though.

For more details:

- Windows 11 Pro Laptop.

- The drives are standard internal 2.5" SSD plugged into an HDD/SSD dock.

- He last accessed the bitlocked drive around 3-4 days ago.

- The two drives' bitlocker was activated on the same day.

- When he noticed suddenly his password can't unlock it, the 2nd portable drive was not plugged into the dock.

- He usually turn off the dock with 1 drive plugged into it, and only turns it on when he needs to access the drive (which is rarely since it's basically a backup drive).

- No, it's not a case of forgotten password or typo-ing the password.

[DrMacintosh]

3 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

I'm curious as to what could be the cause though.

The most random crap will trigger BitLocker to lock you out of your own data. 

If they made any hardware changes, put things back the way they were and note the key down. Also unplug all the drives that are not boot drives to see if Windows will load. If it does, copy the BitLocker key and disable bit locker. The data on the external drives is probably lost at this point but is not guaranteed. 

[Poinkachu]

5 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

The most random crap will trigger BitLocker to lock you out of your own data. 

 

 

Can you give me an example of the kind of "random crap" that might suddenly make a bitlocker password unusable ?

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Poinkachu said:

Can you give me an example of the kind of "random crap" that might suddenly make a bitlocker password unusable ?

For example, a battery replacement can trigger BitLocker to freak out, but cloning the OS drive to a new drive might not. It's an incredibly inconsistent utility. 

 

I had a laptop with two drives, an NVMe SSD and a 2.5" HDD. Neither were encrypted and then I enabled BitLocker. On the next reboot the machine could no decrypt the 2.5" HDD and stopped the machine from booting until I removed the HDD. Thankfully it was blank and I was able to format the drive, disable BitLocker on the laptop altogether, and add the HDD back in. 

[Poinkachu]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

For example, a battery replacement can trigger BitLocker to freak out, but cloning the OS drive to a new drive might not. It's an incredibly inconsistent utility. 

 

I had a laptop with two drives, an NVMe SSD and a 2.5" HDD. Neither were encrypted and then I enabled BitLocker. On the next reboot the machine could no decrypt the 2.5" HDD and stopped the machine from booting until I removed the HDD. Thankfully it was blank and I was able to format the drive, disable BitLocker on the laptop altogether, and add the HDD back in. 

I see.

 

Luckily my friend's drive is not a system drive, just a data repository drive & backup. Losing hundreds of GBs or datas still annoying for him though.

 

Do you know whether a recovery key can unlock it if what happened to my friend's drive happens again?
If this kinda event makes the recovery key obsolete as well ... , I'll just tell him not to use bitlocker at all.

 

[DrMacintosh]

4 minutes ago, Poinkachu said:

Do you know whether a recovery key can unlock it if what happened to my friend's drive happens again?

In theory, if you were to disable BitLocker, add all the drives back, then turn BitLocker back on and export your keys for all your drives before a reboot (they save to a USB drive as a .txt file that you can then replicate/backup)...you should be ok.