question

DianaCline-4982 avatar image
0 Votes"
DianaCline-4982 asked MTG-3890 answered

BITLOCKER USB LOCKED

URGENT REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE: had I known any of this I would never have purchased this type of USB drive.

Last Friday (7/30/2021) I was leaving the company I worked for and asked if I could save my personal folder (from the company issued laptop) to a USB drive. I was given permission to save my folder. When I inserted the usb drive it forcibly encrypted the usb drive. I didn't know it would be saving the recovery key and password to the hard drive until I started searching three days ago, for ways to access the data I saved to the USB. I do not have access to the company issued laptop anymore. I absolutely need to retrieve the data on the USB. I've viewed about 2 dozen videos of how to unlock the bitlocker usb. none of them pertain to my situation.

Does anyone know how to unlock the bitlocker encrypted USB drive without a password, without the recovery key and without the original computer from which I saved the files? HELP very important.

Thank you for your help!

windows-10-security
· 3
5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

INCIDENTALLY, THESE WERE THE ONLY TWO TAGS THAT WOULD ALLOW ME TO POST MY QUESTION. my question has nothing to do with microsoft authenticator or azure disk encryption.

0 Votes 0 ·

Hi @DianaCline-4982 ,

are there any additional questions? Does the answer help to solve the issue?
If you found the answer helpful, it would be great if you please mark it "Accept as answer". This will help others to find answers in Q&A


Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

0 Votes 0 ·

In an environment where encryption starts automatically, the recovery passwords will definitely be saved automatically, so you'll be able to unlock it if you contact the company admins. However, since recovery passwords are linked to an AD computer account and the machine you gave up was possibly formatted, it could be that this AD computer account no longer exists. In that case, the admins would need to consult the AD recovery bin (cross your fingers that they setup one).

0 Votes 0 ·
AndreasBaumgarten avatar image
0 Votes"
AndreasBaumgarten answered AndreasBaumgarten edited

Hi @DianaCline-4982 ,

based in this three facts

  • without a password

  • without the recovery key

  • without the original computer

you won't be able to decrypt the USB stick.

For exactly this kind of scenario the bitlocker encryption for usb sticks is made/designed for:

  • Someone lost the encrypted usb stick somewhere

  • Someone else found the usb stick and without password/recovery key he can't get access to the encrypted data

Sorry for no better news.



(If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

Regards
Andreas Baumgarten

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.

MTG-3890 avatar image
0 Votes"
MTG-3890 answered

Diana, could you share feedback on the suggestions, please?

5 |1600 characters needed characters left characters exceeded

Up to 10 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 3.0 MiB each and 30.0 MiB total.