Question Bitlocker drive failed after BSOD and won't boot any more on ProBook

[loetad]

Hey professionals!

Here's my problem:
I was going to switch a friends Notebook (HP ProBook) from IMAP to Microsoft 365 and moved all Mail from the old Cloud to a local PST on the local disk. After fully completing this, in other words, going SPOF full time, Windows crashed with a BSOD and rebooted. Problem is: it won't boot any more. The Errors it shows are shown on photos attached.

What i've done then is remove the SSD from the notebook and connected it to my PC to at least pull a low level backup using Drive Snapshot from it. It didn't work, it complained about the drive being encrypted with Bitlocker. Also i could not access the main partition with Windows, it always asked me for an 48-char-Recovery-Key that i don't have.

What is the problem? Why can't the notebook boot from the SSD any more? And due do the fact that i don't have the 48-bit-recovery-key, am i completely out of luck?

Please don't tell me i'm out of luck - that would be my death sentence. All my customers emails are on this disk.

Thanks in front and have a nice day
loetad


Edit:

only thing i could see when i connected the Bitlocker encrypted device when i was connecting it to my PC was that the partition structure was intact and the non-Bitlocked-partitions were readable.

I tried using an Windows Installation Stick to perform a Startup Repair but it only provides me with a screen to enter the 48-key-recovery-key (Image 3), that my client never heard of ((((((((((((((((((((.

Please don't tell me i destroyed somebodys life.

 

[loetad]

-zzzzzzzzzdeleteme....

 

[razel]

The drive is dying (SMART error) but the partition is intact? However that partition is Bitlocked.

If you are lucky. Run the SMART utility from the drive manufacturer and it might replace any bad sectors with good ones and the drive will work as prior.

Otherwise you can try to make a copy onto a working SSD. You can copy a Bitlocked encrypted partition. Your work will be getting a clone program to read/skip past unreabled sectors.

After that it's all about getting the key. If it's a work computer, work will have it. If it's attached to a MS account, it maybe be available. MAYBE. One of the computers in my family had a copy of a key on OneDrive. Otherwise, without the bitlocker key which the owner should have kept a copy somewhere, then it's locked.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Situations like this, are why I'm opposed to MS "Automagically" enabling BitLocker on OS drive on new SSD installations of Win10, when the hardware supports it (TPM + SED). Not everybody wants encryption, and it's not always a Good Thing, especially if you have to perform data-recovery, as you've found out.

 

[loetad]

@razel: What program might i use to safe a copy of the whole drive bit wise? I'm on Windows 10. Thanks

 

[Steltek]

I've never used it before, but AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional alleges the capability to do sector clones of encrypted drives and also to clone drives with bad sectors. However, I'd email them before purchasing to make absolutely sure it will work on drives with bad sectors that also contain bitlocker partitions. Not that I think having a backup is going to do you any good without the encryption key, but it might work for that purpose.

I know I probably shouldn't have to point this out after the fact, but in the future if anyone hands you a working computer, your first question should be "have you backed everything up"? And, even if they tell you they have backed it up, save yourself a hassle and back it up yourself temporarily. Because most computer owners are lemmings, and for self preservation you have to presume they already have one foot off the edge of the cliff. Not doing so can open you up to substantial legal liability, even for friends or family.

 

[razel]

Before continuing with the drive copy, I would run the manufacturer's diagnosis utility 1st. From what I remember the majority of them, once they detect a bad SMART condition, especially when related to bad sectors, will give you the option to replace bad ones with new ones. Then you won't have to worry about copying bad sectors and can just proceed with a clone copy using your favorite program. Mine is the old copy of Parted Magic on the ultimate boot cd (which you can put on USB). The only issue with that version of Parted Magic is support for NVME drives. Ultimate Boot CD does include latest DOS versions of many HDD manufacturer's drive utilities.