Restoring an encrypted NVMe drive protected by BitLocker using just the Windows login credentials
Restoring an encrypted NVMe drive protected by BitLocker using just the Windows login credentials
Hi, your friend is facing a tricky situation with his NVM device. He seems to have encrypted it using BitLocker without realizing it. He only has the Windows login details. Currently, connecting via an external USB adapter requires entering a 48-digit recovery key he doesn’t possess. When he connects directly to the laptop, the device still won’t respond. There might be options to recover the drive using just the Windows password, but it depends on the specific recovery method and whether the system supports password-based unlocking after encryption. You may want to check if a recovery key can be generated or if there’s another way to access the drive without the full recovery information.
If he used a Microsoft account for login, BitLocker should activate automatically. The recovery key would be saved in his Microsoft account under Recovery Keys. It’s probably safe to assume he can locate the key there; if not, the login password won’t work without it.
I received access to his Outlook account successfully today. Decryption is currently in progress. The system is NVME-based, though it remains slow (verified via manage-bde -status).
Thanks! It took some time, but once it was done, I restored it to the laptop. It seems the drive is malfunctioning. Even though health monitoring tools indicate it's fine (like crystal disk info and HD Sentinel), it’s actually not working properly—it functions briefly before stopping after a short period.
Decrypting the entire storage would also place significant strain on the drive. This isn't a concern for a typically functioning drive, but for one nearing failure, it could trigger a problem.
Thanks, it seems that occurred as expected. I haven't experienced an NVME failure before, so I'm not very familiar with the types of issues. I was hoping the problem would happen at the TBW limit, but it's well within range and the health software still reports everything as normal. It makes me think another part might have failed.
You could always inspect the connector to verify it isn’t damaged and examine the component directly. It’s difficult to be certain without seeing it, and I’m not inclined to jump to conclusions. I haven’t experienced any M.2 drive failures over the years; my first one was a Samsung SM951 AHCI model from 2015, and it’s still functioning well in my 4790k build.