I recently under went the free upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 and now find I can't read a BitLocker encrypted USB. Windows file explorer does not recognise the drive and there is no where I can enter the password. Can anybody help.
Many thanks
Whitebeard
There was a similar problem upgrading to 8 It isn't really applicable but you could have a look.
I'm not sure but I think that you should be able to unlock an external drive on Windows 10 home - just not use bitlocker for the OS drive.
Try starting the Bitlocker Drive Encryption Serviceif you have it under services.msc
Sorry I can't help too much as I have Pro version...
Thanks for that, I tried starting Bitlocker Drive Encryption Service but just got " Windows could not start the BitLocker Drive Encryption Service on local computer"
Did you have Windows 8.1 Pro before? If so then you should have Windows 10 Pro, which has Bitlocker.
If not, then how did you unlock the file before?
I did a test with VMs running Windows 10 Pro and Home. I created a simulated USB disk on the Pro machine and can open it on the Home machine. But when I first created it, I set it up to unlock with a password; it may be harder if the original was set to unlock in a different way.
One of these tutorials over on Sevenblog and Eightblog might help?
Edit: I think you may need the options in there that use the manage-bde commands. For instance what happens if you go to an elevated command prompt (right click the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin) and type?:Code:manage-bde -status
What would be interesting is to make an encrypted USB on 8.1 Pro VM and then try to unlock it on 10 home.
I could do this but as I don't have either set up as a VM it might (well actually definitely would) take me ages as I'd have to download ISO for both....
It's not quite the same but I just made a VHD, and encrypted on 8.1 Pro (which is my VM host machine at the moment).What would be interesting is to make an encrypted USB on 8.1 Pro VM and then try to unlock it on 10 home.
Then detached the VHD from the host and it into my Win10 Home VM.
I get the 'Unlock Drive' option, and I can put in the password and access it in Win10 Home.
So for me at least it is working as you'd hope - although I'm using VHDs not real physical disks.
Thanks for that I will have a look at the other blog. Regarding your questions may sound daft but I don't know which Windows 8 was installed, just checked the disc and all it says is Win 8.1 64bit. With regard to using the USB I would open file explorer, select the drive letter, right click, and select the bitlocker open command then type in the password.
Just typed in the code and it came back with "error: an attempt to access a required resource was denied. Check that you have administrative rights on the computer" The command prompt is C:usersadmin which I assume means I have administrative rights?
Thanks for the help so far guys.
I don't know what has happened but just tried again and it is now working!
I haven't a clue unless something we did earlier decided to start working. If it is ok with you I will leave this thread open whilst I try it over the next day or so before signing the thread off as solved.
Many many thanks for the help.
Glad you got it going.I could perhaps have explained the bit about opening an "elevated command prompt" better (I was in a hurry earlier).Just typed in the code and it came back with "error: an attempt to access a required resource was denied. Check that you have administrative rights on the computer" The command prompt is C:usersadmin which I assume means I have administrative rights?
For future reference, here is a Tutorial with a better explanation:
Elevated Command Prompt - Open in Windows 10
Another thought is that there may be something amiss with the USB drive itself (which might explain why it worked sometimes and not others) - do you have the contents backed-up elsewhere? If not it might be a good time to make a backup.
Hi, checked again this morning all working will now mark thread as solved.
V. Many thanks for all your help, everything is backed up and using USB as "Briefcase"
Apologies meant to mark this resolved.
