I.T. Cert Brehs, Need Help

[Stick Up Kid]

I have a laptop that i wanna reset, but it has bitlocker encrypted and i dont have the recovery key.

Is there a way I can format this laptop and do a fresh install, even though it has bitlcocker.

 

[K.Dot]

I have a laptop that i wanna reset, but it has bitlocker encrypted and i dont have the recovery key.

Is there a way I can format this laptop and do a fresh install, even though it has bitlcocker.

When I was working support, we'd have to enter the first 8 digits of the recovery key into a bitlocker admin site and provide the long ass key to the customer over the phone. Bitlocker is fukking trash and I hate it. Plugging a mouse up before the computer boots can set it off and lock you out. But to answer your question, not that I'm aware of.

 

[Gab]

go right ahead breh, its fine.

 

[Gold]

Bitlocker is pre-boot encryption so you will have to use a pre-boot method of formatting.

This is actually not as easy as you might think because even if you load up the drive with a boot disk, it will not let you format it via normal options.

But to answer your question, yes.
You can actually access command line from the windows pre-boot installation (and repair) screen by going to advanced options.

Once you are in an elevated command prompt, the rest should be pretty straightfoward. You just blow away the partition and build a new one.

EDIT:
Orrrrrr... if you are using this an external, you can connect it via usb (you wont be able to "see" it but its there) and open diskmgmt.msc. Then just blow away everything on the external and reformat.

There is no way to do this and keep your information though, which is the point.

 

[Stick Up Kid]

Bitlocker is pre-boot encryption so you will have to use a pre-boot method of formatting.

This is actually not as easy as you might think because even if you load up the drive with a boot disk, it will not let you format it via normal options.

But to answer your question, yes.
You can actually access command line from the windows pre-boot installation (and repair) screen by going to advanced options.

Once you are in an elevated command prompt, the rest should be pretty straightfoward. You just blow away the partition and build a new one.

EDIT:
Orrrrrr... if you are using this an external, you can connect it via usb (you wont be able to "see" it but its there) and open diskmgmt.msc. Then just blow away everything on the external and reformat.

There is no way to do this and keep your information though, which is the point.

yep just wanna do a fresh install, dont care about my information or files.

I have the Windows 10 recovery CD and a Windows 10 in a USB....

 

[Gold]

yep just wanna do a fresh install, dont care about my information or files.

I have the Windows 10 recovery CD and a Windows 10 in a USB....

Go into recovery, open advanced options, open cmd;
Type what is in the quotes

-"List Disk"
-"select disk 0" (i'm assuming thats the OS drive, if not, choose the correct drive)
-"List Partition"
-"select partition 1" (i'm assuming that's the encrypted partition, if not choose the correct partition)
-"delete partition override"

Once you finish this, its like you just got a new drive out the box. You can go reformat it via normal means with the windows installation disk

 

[Benjamin Sisko]

yep just wanna do a fresh install, dont care about my information or files.

I have the Windows 10 recovery CD and a Windows 10 in a USB....

You can have Microsoft email the key from their website

 

[Gold]

You can have Microsoft email the key from their website

Not if its a work machine that's on his corporate domain

When someone asks for a way around encryption, you know what that usually means

 

[Benjamin Sisko]

Not if its a work machine that's on his corporate domain

When someone asks for a way around encryption, you know what that usually means

lol I was thinking it was his own personal computer and I ran into this problem with my surface the other day....but I had the option to just skip the process altogether

 

[Gold]

lol I was thinking it was his own personal computer and I ran into this problem with my surface the other day....but I had the option to just skip the process altogether

I bet my coli account this aint his personal machine

 

[Benjamin Sisko]

I bet my coli account this aint his personal machine

But I'm thinking he won't be able to get away with it if the computer is locked down with few permissions...he would need a admin priviledge...right op??

But my surface pro crashed on me couple days ago and restarted itself on its own a couple of times and ran into the bitlocker screen...it led me to the website where I could request the key via email but I didn't know my outlook account since I don't use that email account...but luckily I'd had that option to skip that.

 

[TL15]

Don't even know why I'm in here

 

[aXiom]

yep just wanna do a fresh install, dont care about my information or files.

I have the Windows 10 recovery CD and a Windows 10 in a USB....

You can boot from the installation media and access command line via Shift+F10 during W10 install prerequisites and type the following:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0 (or whatever physical disk you wanna blow away)
clean
exit

and proceed with a normal os install..

data goes bye bye tho...

 

[TRFG]

Isn't that a bios lock?

 

[Stick Up Kid]

You can boot from the installation media and access command line via Shift+F10 during W10 install prerequisites and type the following:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0 (or whatever physical disk you wanna blow away)
clean
exit

and proceed with a normal os install..

data goes bye bye tho...

on the installation am i suppose to press delete partition? cuz it keep going back to the "install now" after it restarts every 5 minutes.