BitLocker locked my external harddrive by itself?!

Anonymous
2014-10-11T23:49:51+00:00

Hi,

Today I connected my external harddrive to my PC and it popped-up this message saying the drive is locked by bitlocker.

This has never happend before on the same PC.

I had no clue wat bitlocker was, so I looked it up and I start to believe that I will never be able to acces my drive again because:

I have no recovery key or password because I have never been in contact with bitlocker in my life untill now.

I searched on every drive inside and outside my PC for it and my microsoft account tells me I have 0 keys stored. 

So, what can I do? This disk contains data I need, so formatting is not an option.

***Post moved by the moderator to the appropriate forum category.***

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-12-12T14:18:54+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for posting in Microsoft Communities.

    As I understand that you are unable to access your external hard disc and you get a message stating “The drive is locked by bit locker”.

    BitLocker Drive Encryption will lock an encrypted drive and require recovery in these situations:

    1. BitLocker has detected a possible security risk during startup.
    2. BitLocker startup key or PIN is lost, or the startup key is damaged.

    Note 1: if a drive is locked using Bit Locker there is no way you can unlock it without the key. if you

    don’t have the key you cannot access the Drive. The key or the Recovery drive is the only way to access your drive back.

    Note 2: Bit Locker will not be enabled automatically.

    Regain access to a computer locked by BitLocker Drive Encryption:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/bitlocker-drive-encryption

    Thank you for contacting Microsoft Communities.

    You are mistaken Vinz.  Two of my usb thumb drives have been locked randomly by bit locker.  I've never locked anything and never even heard of bitlocker.  I definitely didn't lock them on my own and now I can't unlock them.  What's the fix for this?  

    I agree with ElanHurtado, Bitlocker randomly locked the edxternal drive! this is scandalous! There is no fix and Microsoft doesn't care at all.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-02-05T15:55:06+00:00

    It's 2017 and this problem is still not solved?

    2 external hard drives totally inaccessible sitting here with my Dell laptop.

    How could it bitlocker my drives without even asking me?

    All my 10+ years data gone in a flash?

    Is this reality we have to accept?  

    Somebody, please help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-03-11T06:24:19+00:00

    After my external hard drive was surprisingly locked by bitlocker, which I newer have used, I went to store , and bought two external hard drives more. Until now they have worked. The first one, where is my storage of many years, is and remains unusable.

    In one of the first answers, there is an interesting thing: BitLocker Drive Encryption will lock an encrypted drive and require recovery in these situations:

    BitLocker has detected a possible security risk during startup.

    That in an interesting answer! I have newer, ever used bitlocker –newer heard there is one. If it works so, that when it recognizes possible “security risk”, it locks the hard drive, is this legal –even in USA? The bug is, that it locks also the drives, which are not encrypted!

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-01-26T22:06:05+00:00

    I have the very same problem. My external hard drive was locked by bitlocker which I never have used. So I can not have any "security key". How can Microsoft do these kind of "systems"?

    After seeking professional help I had to reset it back to it's original state, losing all my photos, music, documents etc.  The idea of an external hard drive is to "back up" everything but what's the point if you lose it anyway

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-05-26T17:57:19+00:00

    I keep getting e-mails from this thread :P Seems like I'm not the only one having this issue.... I hope a solutions comes up, because I still haven't been able to get onto my hard drive :(

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