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Help to Decrypt the "D" Drive without recovery Key

Team,

I am writing to you to check to get a possible resolution on an existing case with Microsoft O365 & Windows Tech Team. I am not getting a possible solution. Hence, I am writing here to check if anyone in the broader arena can help me to come out from this difficult situation.

 

Let me summarize the issue here:

 

  • My system no boot issue started on 16th of Aug’2020 when an Office 365 Tech Team member trying to help me with the upgradation of E1 to E3 and in the process he deleted some registry files.
  • System got irresponsive and on force restart, the system showing an error Stop Code: Critical Process Died.
  • Please note that Office 365 Tech Team member not taken the back up of my registry before did the Registry Edits. This major software changes triggers the bit locker
  • Further many trouble shoots were tried by various Office 365 Tech Team members.
  • With the help of Office 365 Tech Team member, we talk to Windows Tech Team and they suggested to perform the BIOS downgrade to solve this issue.
  • I contacted Dell and perform BIOS downgrade (downgraded BIOS to 2.6.1.) on 23rd August 2020. Still system shows the error Stop Code: Critical Process Died.
  • Further, connected in conference with Office 365 Tech Team, Windows Tech Team and Dell Tech Team. No solution to bring back to the boot situation. Finally decided to re-install the Operating System.
  • Reinstallation was successful deleting my complete data in the C Drive. 
  • When trying to access the "D" drive, it's showing encrypted. 

  • When clicking the “D” Drive, its asking for Recovery Key. We don’t have the key.

  • Screen showing “No Bit Locker Key” found under the Device Management of Microsoft. To recover the bitlocker key, tried with basic CMDs on bitlocker which is not supporting & proceeded with Intune MDM to recover the key. So went ahead & created, assigned the trial EMS license. Implemented Intune to O365 tenant and enrolled the laptop for Intune. Enrolment is successful but no key recovered from device management since the response found as "No Bitlocker Recovery Key Found for this Device".

Now anyone has a solution for me? Can anyhow help me to access my "D" Drive?

Thanks & Regards,

Dipil

+91-9538252522

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Hi and thanks for reaching out. My name is William. I'm a Windows technical expert. I'll be happy to help you out today.

Without a response key, this will not be possible since it would defeat the purpose of encryption.

Curious, when the D drive was Bitlockered, where was the key backed up to, if at all?

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Hi William, 

Thanks for the response.

I have not turned on Encryption. Also, I am using Windows 10 Home. When talking to the windows tech team, they saying the encryption feature is providing to windows 10 pro only. So I am not even sure, from where the encryption comes?

There must be a way out to decrypt this?

What we will do in case we get such a laptop from a crime scene? We need to decrypt to get the data. Right? So how we do that? I am not asking for support for a theft laptop or so. It's my own laptop and with the mistake of a Microsoft Office 365 Technician, I am on the verge of losing all my data. If he could have taken the back-up of my registry before making the edits, we could have repair the registry and could have boot back to the windows. 

Looking forward to getting a solution.

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Is the D drive a stand-alone drive or a different volume on the same disk as C? Is the computer centrally managed, part of a domain/organization that implements Bitlocker?

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"D" drive is the stand-alone HDD drive. "C" drive where OS installed is SSD. I am the owner of the computer and the firm. I manage the entire thing. I am the Global Admin for O365 as well. No else manage or implement BitLocker in my system.

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So it not uncommon for Bitlocker to be enabled out-of-the-box on the system drive by the big manufactures, even for Windows Home . However, there is no option to enable Bitlocker for an external device using Windows Home. Perhaps the external drive was Bitlockered on another device that had Windows pro or higher on it? Something is simply not adding up.

Either way, encryption is not meant to be defeated or "backdoored", that would defeat the purpose. That said, reports of Bitlocker being defeated in the wild are reported on the Internet, but that level of expertise is not free and Microsoft routinely patches Bitlocker exploits.

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See william, the issue of bitlocker comes when the registry edits were made by the Officer 365 Support Assistant. Till then the system was perfectly functioning as I narrated in my first message. 

The D drive was originally on the laptop and nobody did anything on it. 

The encryption enabled now, and its an unwelcomed thing for me. I would say a problem creator for me now. I can't access my own data. 

If Microsoft can't help me to decrypt, you can atleast route me to the right person to approach. I am even ready to pay. I can't afford to lose the data. 

Please try to understand and if anyway you can support me, let me know. 

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See william, the issue of bitlocker comes when the registry edits were made by the Officer 365 Support Assistant. Till then the system was perfectly functioning as I narrated in my first message. 

The D drive was originally on the laptop and nobody did anything on it. 

The encryption enabled now, and its an unwelcomed thing for me. I would say a problem creator for me now. I can't access my own data. 

If Microsoft can't help me to decrypt, you can atleast route me to the right person to approach. I am even ready to pay. I can't afford to lose the data. 

Please try to understand and if anyway you can support me, let me know. 

If the data were as important as you say, why wasn't it backed up?  Can you not see that pleas for decrypting of locked devices can't be dealt with here?  It's a peer-to-peer help community, with little or no participation from direct Microsoft employees.  No one here can help you.  Do an internet search for data recovery. 

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I cant imagine any registry modifications that could be made to enable Bitlocker on an external device, short of modifying the policy settings. But since this device is not being managed via group policy, those settings would not exist in the first place. I manage an environment of 5000+ computers, all with Bitlocker enabled, and encrypting an external storage devices can only be done via Windows Pro or higher and it is not done automatically.

As for who can help you, I would not know off-hand. I do not work for Microsoft. Data forensics specialist perhaps, but that is something you need to research. And since it was an MS tech who fumbled the football on this one, I would try contacting Microsoft and ask them how they are going to make this right.

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Yes, William. I am not sure why you are using the term external device. It's my laptop D drive. I have only C & D drive. From the date of purchase, that is October 2019, there was no issue in the laptop, and hardware changes been done.

Request you to transfer this to Microsoft Team, and let's see what they have for me as a solution. They only created this issue. 

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I not back-up the data thinking that I will not lose anything in my D drive. I am not coming from a tech background and as a layman, I was knowing this only. In case of any issue in the laptop, you lose your C drive data and everything else remains safe. 

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Last updated January 30, 2021 Views 354 Applies to: