Bitlocker encryption on my external HDD abended midway and now I am not able to access my drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter BalajiPrasad1
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BalajiPrasad1

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Here are the sequence of events -


1. I have a company issued laptop which is Bitlocker encrypted. On this laptop, I connected my external HDD and agreed to run BL encryption

2. When the process started, the system prompted me to save the Recovery Key for any mishaps. I saved it to a PDF

3. I was asked to enter a password and I entered it

4. The process started and was talking a long time, my laptop was connected to a wall charger and left the room

5. My little niece unplugged my laptop to charge her ipad to play her games and guess what, my laptop died

6. When I came back and powered it on with external power, the disk was apparently encrypted, I am not sure if it was fully encrypted or not, but I could not open it by double clicking the drive letter anymore

7. I entered the password I gave and it did not work (I am not even sure if I have forgotten the password, but I generally use the same for everything official)

8. I opened the recovery key option and HORROR of HORRORS - the recovery key ID on the screen is different from what I printed to pdf



My company said I need to talk to Seagate (HDD manufacturer) as they did not have AD level recovery key for external drives (made sense), Seagate said I need to talk to Dell, Dell said I need to talk to Microsoft and when I called MS they said I need to call my company for help (circle completed).


I love Microsoft and have been an unpaid evangelist for all things MS. But this has been a sour experience for me. Bitlocker has data that I created over the past 7 years ransom and I really am begging for any help from anyone. I am willing to pay even a reasonable fee if required - say $100 or $200. But PLEASE HELP ME SOMEONE.


This is a terrible situation and I beseech everyone from refraining to use bitlocker encryption unless you can spend hours watching it complete.

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