Lenovo 100s ideapad Bitlocker problem after Windows update Nov 2018.

Greetings, Fellow Casualties of Microsoft,

I must jump in here because I encountered the exact same problem, but I have a few twists to my experience that take it to another level. They may just form the foundation of a mystery novel. What do you think of this title?

THE MYSTERY OF THE TECH WHO DISAPPEARED

When the Windows 10 update was pushed out, my Dell PC crashed, and my hard drive became encrypted by Bit Locker. I had no Bit Locker key because I didn't install it. It didn't show up in my Microsoft account or in any emails, either.

Like many of you, all I got was the blue recovery screen. There was no such thing as "starting up" my PC. All signs of Windows were gone. The PC wouldn't even boot. A tech I engaged did finally get to the BIOS screen, but none of the suggestions above worked. 

The difference between my situation and some of yours was that I HAD to save the hard drive. I couldn't let it be wiped clean by having Windows 10 reinstalled on it. Why?

Three rather devastating situations:

1. Something awful happened to my backups when my hard drive data was eaten by Bit Locker. My backup in One Drive online was corrupted in an ugly way. I had only about a third of the folders I used to have before the update, and half of those folders were empty shells. Nothing inside.

What about an external hard drive, you ask? I did have a Seagate that my Dell was backing up to nightly and remained connected to all the time. Kind of overkill with two backup systems, right? But you'll see why soon. However, much of the data on the Seagate inexplicably disappeared as well.

So, there I was with a hard drive full of data I couldn't get to (and maybe just as corrupted as the rest), a One Drive folder that was useless, and a Seagate external hard drive that was just as bad.

But I couldn't let just anyone try anything on that hard drive because the data was so valuable.

How valuable, you ask?

2. I'm a freelance writer and speaker coach by trade. I had ghostwritten a third of a book and 90% of a book proposal for a client who had a publishing agent already eager to see it. The book was going to pull the covers on some technology giants--sort of the next generation of Lean In for female technology leaders. My client works for a large enterprise software company, and we were both excited when a book agent showed such early enthusiasm. 

I was finishing the book proposal for my client's approval in December. It took almost a month to put together, as they are long, complicated packages. 

Then, Microsoft pushed out the Windows 10 update without giving me a choice whether or not to accept it. Suddenly, a blue screen. All the data gone. 

Of all the bits and pieces of data that were ultimately recovered from One Drive and my external hard drive, just by chance NONE OF THEM pertained to the book. Even the recordings of the interviews with my client, from which I was writing the book, were on only my PC's hard drive. If I had the heart to try to reconstruct everything, all the source material I had was now gone and would have to be recreated from scratch.

Thanks to Microsoft, not only did I lose the writing job, but I have to pay back a large advance. And my reputation? It was supposed to take off and soar with this book, but it has sunk back into gloomy obscurity.

I've saved the most expensive reason for last:

3. I am in the midst of a lawsuit and ALL the pertinent data I had been collecting for 18 months was on my PC.  It was my whole case. I'm disabled as a result of an auto accident in which my car was totaled, and the insurance company is likely to get away with paying me no more than a pittance. I had planned to get a settlement of at least $200k to pay for back surgery and help at home while I recovered for 6 - 18 months. Meanwhile, I'm on a walker instead of being the active person I was. The statute of limitations is running out. and I have no idea what I'll do.

However, things could be worse. From a much bigger and higher-minded perspective, I'm glad I'm not in the shoes of the clinical trial coordinator who wrote to the Microsoft community about the same issue. However, in his case, months of clinical trial data from an unfinished cancer study with hundreds of patient volunteers disappeared into a Bit Locker encryption. I sheepishly admit that my troubles pale in comparison.

I bought a replacement hard drive from Dell, but I wouldn't let them have my old one. It's sitting in a safe deposit box until I see how this turns out for you all. Personally, I've given up spending every waking moment on it (and many sleepless nights). My experience trying to get a solution from Microsoft has left me feeling completely exhausted and beaten. 

Here comes the strangest part of the story. Is there a corporate conspiracy going on?

After working with  some incompetent Level 1 techs at Microsoft and seeing US data recovery techs run at the words "Bit Locker Encrypted," I was introduced to a Level 2 Microsoft Support Technician in India.  We worked together for 3 week s-- every day for hours. I got nothing else done; this issue dominated my days and nights.

When he had finished trying all the possible solutions that Microsoft had to offer, he told me that THE ONLY WAY AROUND THE BIT LOCKER ENCRYPTION WAS TO USE NON-MICROSOFT DATA RECOVERY SOFTWARE. He knew of some that he said worked. If I could engage a private tech in Silicon Valley, he would walk them through the process to get around Bit Locker. He said it wouldn't decrypt the encryption (nothing could do that), but it somehow created a side door for access to the hard drive's precious data. I wasn't to tell anyone what he was planning. He said he would lose his job.

I found it surprisingly difficult to find a tech here willing to take direction from a Microsoft tech in India, but I finally found did and sent my Indian tech a phone number where he could reach both of us early the next morning. 

At the appointed time, my American tech and I waited for the call. It never came. I called him. I emailed him. I kept at it for a couple of days. I never heard from him again.

This issue has cost me three months of my life and a few hundred thousand dollars, unless I can get my data off that encrypted drive quickly.

I'm interested in a class action suit. Anyone care to join me? How can Microsoft keep getting away with pushing out software that is full of bugs while employing tech support that isn't trained to solve them?

Or does anyone know how to solve this problem yet? Thanks for anything you can tell me.

ST

hi all 

the latest update I have is that a level 3 agent will contact me at some time from micro soft they also gave me a telephone number

for their provisional team which was an incorrect number and reading some reports that hackers with access to you machine can get the keys

 and also it would appear that Lenovo also have a backdoor to your machine what chance have we got if I don't get a resolve soon I am going to open laptop and see I have done similar on a chromebook 

regards brrpage

Has anyone had any luck getting Microsoft to solve this issue?

hi paulw656

have sent this text via micosoft support

Having spoken to you today and you passed me through to a Lenovo agent

We went through all things t o try and resolve issue but after checking in more detail this model does not have a portioned hard drive or boot from usb option

Which I did explain to you before several times so as the agent from Lenovo said they don’t even know how you got bit locker to activate as laptop does not meet your own criteria a copy of which is attached to this email and we are back to Microsoft to sort the issue out now three months on .This is clearly a major issue for us .and I don’t understand how when you do an update you suspend bit locker for the update  to activate, Also I pointed out to you that a large update could also trigger bit locker to enable ,Bearing all this in mind I THINK I WILL BE LOOKING FOR SOME FINANCIAL  COMPENSATION  AS I AM GOING TO HAVE TO PURCHASE ANOTHER MACHINE THAT WORKS

Also over the past two years Microsoft have suspended/switched off /switched on bit locker PLEASE DO IT ASAP

REGARDS BRRPAGE

SENT /14/02/2019 TO MICROSOFT SUPPORT CASE NUMBER WITH HELD FOR SECURITY TO Microsoft support agents name with held for security

BitLocker Requirements

It is important to understand the following BitLocker requirements before you implement BitLocker on your computer. These requirements are fairly minimal and an average user is likely to easily implement them on his/her computer.

Hardware

TPM v1.2 Chip - If you have a computer that you purchased in the last few years, chances are that it includes a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip. This is common on most laptops these days. To properly secure your Windows computer with BitLocker, Microsoft recommends you use TPM version 1.2 or later. If you are not sure whether your computer has a TPM chip, type tpm.msc in the Windows search box to load TPM Console. It will show you the TPM if it exists, otherwise you will see a message Compatible TPM cannot be found. Support for USB – Your computer must support booting from a USB flash drive. If you don’t have a TPM chip, you can still use BitLocker Drive Encryption with a USB flash drive. For example, if you have a Windows 10 desktop computer that doesn’t have a TPM chip, you can use the USB flash drive to save the BitLocker recovery key. You will insert the flash drive when the computer is started or resumed from hibernation and it will unlock the computer for you.

NOTE: BitLocker doesn’t support Dynamic Disks. Dynamic disks are very rare and if you don’t know what a dynamic disk is, chances are that you have not converted your Basic Disk to a Dynamic Disk.

Software

No Additional Software Required – BitLocker is integrated into the Windows operating system and therefore doesn’t require any additional software.

Partitions

Because pre-startup authentication and system integrity verification must take place on a partition other than the encrypted operating system drive, BitLocker requires that your computer has at least two partitions:

1. An operating system partition (usually drive C) that is formatted with NTFS.
2. A system partition that is at least 350MB. This is where Windows stores files needed to load Windows at boot. The system partition must not be encrypted and should also be formatted with NTFS for computers that use BIOS firmware and with FAT32 for computers that use UEFI-based firmware. This drive is often hidden in Windows Explorer. You can configure one or more partitions for your data (drive D, E, etc.) and enable BitLocker on them.

Administrative Access

lets see what happens now regards brrpage