By Sofia
BitLocker drive encryption is a full disk encryption feature for Windows users. Having BitLocker integrated features in your Windows operating system provide the best protection to your data against any kind of theft and hacks.
While BitLocker certainly helps you secure your data from prying eyes, it is not safe from data loss. We have encountered several of our readers complaining about how the BitLocker encrypted drive has been damaged and are looking for ways to recover the BitLocker encrypted drive.
Things like these do happen from time to time. However, if you use the BitLocker encryption tool to secure your data, you must also know the risks that come with it. Here is a list of common data loss scenarios that you may encounter.
- Data was lost while extending and shrinking the drive.
- BitLocker encrypted drives might get corrupted.
- SHIFT deleting the data.
- Formatting the data.
When you come across a scenario where your Bitlocker encrypted drive is inaccessible, seek help from a data recovery professional.
How To Recover BitLocker Encrypted Drive?
After saving private data into the computer hard drive, most people are eager to protect their data. This is where BitLocker encryption offers its assistance. Despite being one of the best encryption software, it certainly comes with flaws. Once the data from an encrypted drive is lost, it is difficult to recover them.
While this scenario is rare, who knows, you might face the same problem.Â
Once you have lost data from a BitLocker encrypted drive, you can only recover data by taking help from a reliable data recovery tool.
Follow the steps to recover data effectively.
Step 1: Download Data Recovery Software
While you are downloading data recovery software, ensure that you are downloading it from a secure platform. The best way to do so is by downloading the software from its official website. This way, you will be sure that viruses do not infect the software.
Step 2: Launch The Software
Once the download is complete, launch the software and let it tune up according to your system. This might take some time; once the process is completed, it will take you to the software interface. There you will be able to see all the available dives in your system.Â
Step 3: Select & Scan
The next step is to navigate through the drives and select the drive in question. When you select the drive, you will be asked to give the recovery key of the BitLocker encrypted drive. The scanning process comes with two scanning modes.Â
- Deep scan: Deep Scan is used to recover data that are inaccessible or long-lost.
- Quick Scan: Quick scan is mostly used to recover recently lost data.
Depending on your situation, select the relevant mode and initiate the scanning process.Â
Step 4: Preview
The preview step is all about going through your results. This feature really helps you recover data selectively. You can even use the filters to find the exact result from the list of results.
Step 5: Recover
Once you have finalized the data that you want to recover, select them all and hit recover. The recovery process is like downloading files from the internet. Hence, the recovery process might take time, depending on the volume of data you want to recover.
Frequently Asked Questions
BitLocker prevents any unauthorized access to data on lost devices. When used in conjunction with TPM, BitLocker can validate the files and boost the activity.
Here are a few questions that were left unanswered in this article.
Q1. How To Check Whether Your Device Is TPM Compatible?
Before using the BitLocker in your device, it is important to ensure your device is TPN compatible. Without the support of the TPM, you won’t be able to use BitLocker.
If you are using Windows 10, follow the steps to check whether or not your system is TPM compatible.
- Go to the Windows defender security center.
- Navigate to Device security.
- Security Processor details.
After following the steps, you will be taken to the devices’ TPM status. If your device is TPM compatible, the status will show the TPM availability.
Q2. Can BitLocker Be Used In A Device Without TPM?
Yes, you can use the BitLocker encryption tool on a device without TPM. However, this might require you to go through some additional authentication. That means, every time your device boots to decrypt the hard drive, you would need to use a USB flash drive with a startup key.
However, even this method also has its flaws. This method works only if the BIOS firmware can read from the USB flash drive.
Q3. I Accidentally Shut Down The System While Decrypting The Drive. Will I Lose My Data?
No, you will not lose your data. When you shut down the system while the decryption process is still on its way, the process pauses itself. You can start the computers and start decrypting the hard drive from where the system was shut down.
The same thing can be said for the encryption process as well. Although you must never try to do this on purpose, shutting down your system while operating on a process can cause software errors.
Final Words
BitLocker encryption makes it impossible for the bad guys to get their hands on your sensitive information. But, at the same time, it also prevents you from accessing the data without the right passwords. Fortunately, we have a solution to help you access the Bitlocker encrypted data if you lose your password.
If you ever encounter a problem where you cannot access BitLocker encrypted data, follow the steps we have mentioned in this article.
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