How I Regained Control of My System After Being Locked Out by BitLocker
And how to protect yourself in advance from this happening to you!
I just spent several days trying to figure out how to regain administrative control of my computer after I was suddenly locked out of all controlling functions by bitlocker including dos controls.
Every time I tried a method, I was told to enter my Recovery Key, which is different from the Recovery ID, which is just a corporate gaslighting technique. The system readily gives you your recovery ID and you might imagine that this means you have a way to unlock your system but in fact, once you are locked out your Recovery ID is useless what you need is your Recovery Key which you should locate using your Microsoft Account or Command Prompt before you are locked out.
I visited Microsoft Support and found many links where I was told I could access my Recovery Key but they all linked to a page that said, "Try Another URL" Then in desperation, I tried Just Ask Experts. Their advertising makes it seem like you can get a free trial for $1.00 but that too is gaslighting. I was cautious and read the terms and saw that one could cancel the monthly auto payment of $55.00 if it is 24 hours in advance, so I decided to try it.
That is, until I read the text on the submit button which said I would be charged the 1$ signup fee and the monthly charge on this day- no twenty-four-hour window of opportunity to cancel the monthly subscription! What dishonest advertising!
How did I get control of my system back? Fortunately, I occasionally rebuild computers, so I had a spare system drive and I installed it as the primary drive, making my old primary drive a slave. Then I was able to use Dos Commands to see what was going on and I was also able to unlock the drive without any issues from File Explorer.
My dystopian vision is a world where corporations can take control of the administrative functions of your computer and then charge you a fee to get it back.
Why does Microsoft's support page give us links to get our control back on our own that do not work? Once again, it does not take much time to locate your Recovery Key if you have full access of your administrative functions so you should do so and keep it in a safe place so that you have it if this ever happens to you.
The Recovery Key is all numeric, While the Recovery ID has letters and numbers, The code used in Command Prompt to display the Recovery Key displays the Recovery ID as well.
What is the use of the Recovery ID?
None except to create the illusion that you have a way to get back into your system if you are locked out!
Not so! The Recovery ID, we are told enables us to find our Recovery Key.
So why not simply give us our Recovery Key? That is all we need to unlock our systems.
You need to know how to find your recovery Key using the Dos Prompt!
Type manage-bde -protectors C: -get That will display the Recovery Key and recovery ID simultaneously! But you only need the Recovery Key, which is the one that is all numerical.
To get into Command Prompt type CMD in the Windows search bar and right-click to select “run as administrator” from the menu.
It is important to do this while your system is functioning normally because once my system was locked, I could no longer run CMD as administrator!
Type manage-bde -status to display a list of all your volumes which will identify if they are encrypted
If a drive is encrypted type the following command substituting C: with the encrypted drive:
manage-bde -protectors C: -get
This will tell you both your Recovery ID and your Recovery Key. The Recovery Key is the only one you need. It is all numerical. When I ran the command the Recovery ID was listed as the all-numerical one but that is assumed to be a case of mistaken identity. You need a key that is all numerical to unlock the drive.
To find a list of all the bde commands type manage-bde -?”
Do so now. I have read that all new systems will come with pre-installed encryption.
And it never hurts to keep an extra system drive around and to know how to install it or switch it out.
Hope all is going well for you in BoothBay
LOVE,
Alan
Mackenzie, I feel your pain --- Big Time. My system went unstable on this post, 'somebody up there dose'nt like me".
There is much to be learned from the multi-metaphoric analogy of vast Wealth Inequality between SCJ Louis Brandeis and the GINI Coefficient of Wealth Inequality — of which “The Quiet American” duopoly EMPIRE has employed with the deceit of ’Negative Externality Cost’ LOOTING and “Accumulation by Dispossession” [David Harvey].
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G70pZF8PEcE/WAeD5QG_LHI/AAAAAAAANPY/COwG_Mor210WoB8fInWCxHbmvNXGXFPxwCLcB/s1600/Brand.jpg
From the 1930’s when Brandeis quoted this — to the 2020’s when we have to understand that our EMPIRE is the greatest Global Crime in our fragile and only little world:
“We can have an actual democratic socialist society of Love over Violent Empire or we can have the concentration of great and massive wealth in the hands of the very few. We can not have both”
My double-sided, ad-hoc, focus-group tested signs which I demonstrate with in Portland Maine and Portsmouth NH. weekly and simply say:
INEQUALITY
CAUSED BY
BILLIONAIRE
BASTARDS
vs
DEMOCRATIC
SOCIALISM
LOVE FOR
PEACE
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