There is a BitLocker encrypted partition on the internal hard disk of my computer, and I use this partition to store some important files. A few days ago, I used the password to unlock the partition as usual, then I was copying some files to this partition, but suddenly the power was off. After that I can't unlock this Bitlocker encrypted drive anymore, although I have the correct password and recovery key. How can I repair this Bitlocker encrypted drive?
You may encounter the issue that the hard disk area where BitLocker metadata is stored is corrupted, and can no longer unlock the BitLocker encrypted drive normally. This kind of issue may be caused by a power failure or if Windows exits unexpectedly. How can we repair the BitLocker Encrypted Drive to recover the lost files when a BitLocker Encrypted Drive cannot be unlocked? This tutorial will show you two solutions for how to repair BitLocker Encrypted Drive in Windows 11/10/8/7.
The BitLocker Repair Tool (Repair-bde) is a tool provided by Microsoft to help users recover data from a severely damaged hard volume that was encrypted with BitLocker. It is used especially for the extraction of data from under locked Bitlocker encrypted drive. Here we will show you how to use the BitLocker Repair Tool to recover lost files from a corrupted Bitlocker encrypted drive.
The BitLocker Repair Tool is a command-line tool included with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and later operating systems, normally we don't need to download it, but if you can't find it in your windows, you can download it from the link below.
Download BitLocker Repair ToolAfter downloading and installing the BitLocker Repair Tool, now you can use it to help access encrypted data if the hard disk has been severely damaged. To use this command-line tool, first make sure the following conditions are true.
Now you can use the commands below to Repair corrupted Bitlocker encrypted drive depending on what you would like to do. In these commands, "E" is the Bitlocker encrypted drive and "F" is a local drive for where to extract the data from the encrypted BitLocker drive.
1. Repair corrupted Bitlocker encrypted drive using Bitlocker password:Open an elevated command prompt, type the command below, press Enter, type the Bitlocker password for this encrypted drive when prompted, then press Enter.
repair-bde E: F: -pw -F
2. Repair corrupted Bitlocker encrypted drive using Bitlocker recovery key:Open an elevated command prompt, type the command below, then press Enter. In this command, "111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111" is the 48 digit BitLocker recovery key for the encrypted BitLocker drive.
repair-bde F: E: -rp 111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111-111111 -F
3. Repair corrupted Bitlocker encrypted drive using Bitlocker startup key:Open an elevated command prompt, type the command below, then press Enter. In this command, "H:\StartupKey.BEK" is the location that the startup key has been saved or copied to.
repair-bde F: E: -rk H:\StartupKey.BEK -F
Hasleo Data Recovery is the best BitLocker Data Recovery software which can help you recover deleted or lost files from a healthy, inaccessible, formatted, failed, damaged, corrupted, deleted or lost Windows BitLocker encrypted drive. If the BitLocker Repair Tool is not able to help you repair BitLocker Encrypted Drive, we recommend that you try Hasleo data Recovery, and here we will show you how to recover data from corrupted Bitlocker drive with Hasleo Data Recovery.
Download, install and run Hasleo Data Recovery, then select BitLocker Data Recovery.
1. Please select the hard disk or partition where you lose your files, then click "Scan" button to find all BitLocker encrypted partitions on the device.
2. A pop-up window will appear asking you to enter the BitLocker password or 48-digit BitLocker recovery key. If you don't want to enter the password or BitLocker recovery key here, just click the "Skip" button to skip it.
3. Hasleo Data Recovery will list all found BitLocker encrypted partitions on the target device. If you have entered the password or BitLocker recovery key in the previous step, the password status will show whether the password or BitLocker recovery key matches this partition.
4. Double click the BitLocker encrypted partition you want to recovery data from. If you have previously entered the password or BitLocker recovery key and the the password or recovery key matches, Hasleo Data Recovery will start scanning lost files. Otherwise, a pop-up window will appear asking you to enter the password or BitLocker recovery key. Enter the password or recovery key and then click "OK" button, Hasleo Data Recovery will start scanning lost files if the password or recovery key matches.
There will be a list of files found by the software, you can preview found files by path and types. Select the files you want to recover and click "Recover" button to save them. If some files are not found, please click "Deep Scan" button to start the Deep Scan Recovery process, deep scan takes more time, but can find much more lost files.
Please note that:
1. You must enter the correct Bitlocker password or the 48-digits Bitlocker recovery key to successfully recover data from a BitLocker encrypted drive.
2. If the metadata area of a BitLocker encrypted drive is severely corrupted, you will not be able to recover data from this partition even if you have the correct Bitlocker password or the 48-digits Bitlocker recovery key.
3. Don't save the recovered files to the partition where your lost files originally located. This prevents your data from geting overwriten.
4. You can export/save the scanning results for later or next recovery.
