[Larsmc312]

My daughter bought a laptop last fall, and set it up to use. She is not a techie, and did just the minimum activity to get the thing up and running.

All is good, until yesterday evening.

She found the LT locked up with the BitLocker screen.
She never set up bitlocker. has no idea about it.
{I've never played with Win 11, yet. My three LT's have hardware deficiencies that, apparently prohibit me from installing Win 11.
However, I get that this is really irrelevant to Bitlocker, so,...}

My question (finally): If she cannot acquire her bitlocker key, I believe that her only option will be to replace the current hard drive with a new one, and re-install Windows.
If there are other options, please, can someone enlighten me?
(she was smart enough to set up onedrive and verified all her files are safely stored there.)

Advice?

 

[spunk.funk]

Does she sign in with a Microsoft account (ie) Email address? Or a local account user name and password they made up? If the former you can go on another internet device (ie) smart phone, tablet, other laptop or computer to their Microsoft account Outlook – free personal email and calendar from Microsoft. And the BitLocker key should be listed there. If that doesn't work
You may need to reset your laptop to factory settings, which will erase all data on the drive. It's always a good idea to regularly back up your important data to avoid losing it in case of such scenarios.

 

[Larsmc312]

Thanks for the reply. As usual, it's more complicated that it should be.
She insists that she never set up bitlocker on this PC. It was acquired for use as a learning tool for autistic grandkid. They play videos on it.
And there is no information for a bitlocker key in her MS account.

I've actually never seen bitlocker show up without some active and conscious effort from the PC owner.

I suspect this is somehow a disk error. How is that even possible?
Nevertheless, it seems the only option will be to reset and re-install. That option comes up in the menu when I bale out from the bitlocker screen, but reports a failure. "There was a problem resetting this PC"
So, It is looking like my only option is to create a usb boot system. sigh.

 

[spunk.funk]

If the drive is Encrypted, it will show BitLocker screen if there is a hardware or major software change. If they don't have the BiLocker key and you have tried to call Microsoft, then The only option at that point is to wipe the computer and do a reinstall of Windows

 

[johnwill]

I've actually never seen bitlocker show up without some active and conscious effort from the PC owner.

There was certainly some "active and conscious" effort by someone to make that happen. Bitlocker doesn't show up and encrypt your drive on it's own!

 

[Larsmc312]

There was certainly some "active and conscious" effort by someone to make that happen. Bitlocker doesn't show up and encrypt your drive on it's own!

Yeah, that was my conclusion.

This is turning strange. She has nothing to show a Windows license, or anything else. simply an envelope with an HP serial number label. containing a HP limited warranty statement. No Windows install disk, no windows license or any MS documentation at all. Had I received such a thing, I would have been mightily suspicious.

I've never seen windows come already installed and licensed, before.
But, She says that all she did was turn it on, set up a user name and set a password. Then she installed MS office from her existing Office license.
And it was working fine until the other day when she had left it running, while she went to run some errands, and came back to it to find the Bitlocker message.

Puzzlement.
I just now looked and noticed that the S/N on the envelope is not the same as the S/N on the LT

That seems more than a bit curious.

 

[johnwill]

I think it's time to just knock it flat and re-install windows. If this had a legitimate copy of Windows, you should be able to re-install from a downloaded copy from Microsoft and the license will be recognized automatically.

 

[spunk.funk]

If you get a new laptop or desktop computer that is a name brand (ie) Dell, HP etc. It will have Windows pre-installed, the user will just have to do the last steps of creating a User Name and Password. This drive was probably encrypted with BitLocker at the factory. The OEM product key is installed into the Bios, or associated with her Microsoft account. So, if ever the user has to reinstall Windows, they will not have to type in the product key.
On another internet computer, download the Windows 11 ISO image, and burn the image to a USB Flash drive with the Media Creation Tool on the same page.
Put the burned Flash drive Windows Installer into he troubled computer and restart pressing F9 repeatedly. Select the Flash Drive as the boot device.
In the Installer, choose your Language, then Custom Install. In Where Would You Like To Install Windows? Delete ALL Partitions on the drive until it is all Unallocated Space then press Next.
Windows will create partitions and format them during the install

 

[johnwill]

Why in the world would the factory encrypt the disk? I've never seen or even heard of that before.

 

[spunk.funk]

The seller would Encrypt the computer if it is configured for a business and not for personal use,

 

[Larsmc312]

The seller would Encrypt the computer if it is configured for a business and not for personal use,

I think it's time to just knock it flat and re-install windows. If this had a legitimate copy of Windows, you should be able to re-install from a downloaded copy from Microsoft and the license will be recognized automatically.

This is something called "HP Victus". she bought online. There are a bunch of them. they are "gaming" PCs with i5 procs and 8 GgB of memory.

I built a boot USB with Win11 and waiting to resolve the problem of not having the product key handy.

Next problem: she apparently was trying to use wrong pw to get into MS account. now it's locked and sending recovery .info to an email she has not used for years and no longer has access to. [????] sheesh!

So, I will go with installing win 11 from the USB and see how that goes.
Worse case, she has to buy a new Key. Right?

 

[johnwill]

The seller would Encrypt the computer if it is configured for a business and not for personal use,

I really doubt that all business computer purchases have Bit Locker enabled by default! In any case, this clearly isn't that case, the user was using the computer and suddenly Bit Locker appeared from out of the blue, not nearly the same as it being enabled on purpose.

 

[Larsmc312]

So, install went well. though there was no license found on the laptop, and it defaulted to the basic win 11 version. I have the option of buying a Pro version, of course. And the Pro version is required to set up Bitlocker.
So, we know that it did have a license for Pro. but daughter says she looked through her papers and finds nothing with a license.
Curious.

So we still have the mystery of how Bitlocker got into the act. and why it locked the PC. She insists that she did not enable it.
And, where the heck did the original license key go?

The pc is intended for entertaining he grandchild who has learning disabilities, so the basic license should suffice.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[spunk.funk]

As stated, the Windows license/product key is embedded in the Bios. If the computer initially had Windows 11 Home, then when you reinstall, you will get Windows Home again. if you have a Windows Pro license, you can change it in Settings/System/Activation. If there was No key, then Windows will not be activated.
To confirm what version of 11 you have, go to Search and type Winver and press Enter.
Here are some reasons BitLocker may have been triggered: What causes BitLocker Recovery Mode?

 

[johnwill]

I don't see how BitLocker recovery mode gets invoked unless you have already enabled BitLocker. The fact that BitLocker suddenly appeared seems to be the mystery here.

 

[Larsmc312]

As stated, the Windows license/product key is embedded in the Bios. If the computer initially had Windows 11 Home, then when you reinstall, you will get Windows Home again. if you have a Windows Pro license, you can change it in Settings/System/Activation. If there was No key, then Windows will not be activated.
To confirm what version of 11 you have, go to Search and type Winver and press Enter.
Here are some reasons BitLocker may have been triggered: What causes BitLocker Recovery Mode?

So, win version is Home. and from what you say, that must be the version that was running originally.
So, we have to presume that we started out with Win 11 Home, without any evidence to the contrary.
In which case, we have no explanation for Bitlocker activating, much less triggering.
she had hit the sleep button and we were having dinner. She came back hit button to wake it, and it was displaying Bitlocker screen.
Now if Win 11 Home does not let you set up bitlocker, how did that happen? (When you hit the bitlocker option in settings, you get a window trying to sell you Wn 11 Pro.)

It's still a mystery.

 

[spunk.funk]

You can still use BitLocker device encryption, Not BitLocker in Windows 11 Home. How to enable BitLocker device encryption on Windows 11 Home - Pureinfotech

 

[johnwill]

How to enable BitLocker device encryption on Windows 11 Home
Apparently, you can enable a stripped down version of BItLocker on Win11 Home, it's "Device Encryption".

 

[Larsmc312]

How to enable BitLocker device encryption on Windows 11 Home
Apparently, you can enable a stripped down version of BItLocker on Win11 Home, it's "Device Encryption".

It's actually more correct to state that Bitlocker is a sub-function of Device Encryption.
You can select Device Encryption on any version of Win 11. To enable Bitlocker, you need the more advanced versions of Windows 11.
That device encryption option is on by default at install. And, if you are in Win 11 Home, when you try to do Bitlocker, it takes you to a page where you may purchase Win 11 Pro for the bargain price of 99 USD. Once you have made the purchase, you can then enable Bitlocker.

I can assure you that she did not make that selection. She questions every potential expenditure, and doesn't spend money, unless she has been convinced that it's worth it.

So, device encryption was activated (default mode) but Bitlocker was never enabled during the initial start-up.
There was never a Bitlocker recovery Key sent to her account.

Only procedural clue I have is that she told me she had been leaving the pc on, and putting it in sleep mode when leaving it to do other things. Then, coming back and waking it.

Somehow a code failure likely caused something that tripped the Bitlocker alert? That's all I can think of.
Not much else to be done about it.
Having spent a few years as a Software test tech, and then a Customer support Engineer, I can assure you that there are bugs in MS code. I think I found one.
What to do about it? Eh, If I could recreate it, I'd report it to MS.

 

[spunk.funk]

Your best defense is to create an Image File and save it to a USB HDD of the disk that Windows 11 is on, with Macrium Reflect or your favorite Imaging program. Also create a Recovery Flash Drive from the app to boot off of and do the Image and to use it if you run into an issue like this again. Then you will be back up in minutes and not days with all files and apps in tact.