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Laptop was working just fine earlier, but I restarted it for the update it said it needed. When I booted it back up afterwards, it gave me the Bitlocker Recovery screen. I gave it the code, but it took me to "additional recovery options" instead. I tried uninstalling the latest updates, machine said it could not. I tried system restore. It couldn't find anything. I tried using a windows 11 boot image on a usb to fix it, could not fix anything. When I decided "screw it, I'll just reinstall windows", the only "drive" it could recognize was the usb I had plugged in and not either of the SSDs I have installed in my laptop. I checked the bios, and it recognizes that they're there, but for some reason, Windows does not anymore, and I cannot fix this.
Neither the C: nor D: drives are getting recognized when I try to follow recovery processes.
To clarify, I put in my recovery key on the Bitlocker screen, it gives me the "Preparing Auto Repair" screen, then takes me to troubleshooting. It's from there that I found I cannot system restore, backup recovery, or uninstall recent updates. I used a windows 11 boot image USB, but as I said in the original post, it can't find the two drives installed.
I cannot even figure out how to factory reset the laptop because of this.
I figured out what my problem was. My secondary drive was salvaged from my old laptop, and despite being reformatted probably still has remaining Windows 10 boot data. I told my bios to switch up boot priorities, and that seems to have resolved the problem. Thank you for anyone who tried to research what could cause this for me. Hope this helps anyone else who has a similar problem in the future.
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Hi Elazul Sasayaki,
Thank you so much for the update. I’m glad to hear that changing the boot priority in the BIOS resolved the issue.
I also appreciate you taking the time to share the solution. This information may be helpful to other users who experience a similar BitLocker or startup issue. If you have any other questions in the future, please feel free to post again on the Microsoft Q&A forum.
Wishing you all the best!
