Bitlocker Preventing Start-Up

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Mar 16, 2018 by Former user (Deleted)
2 min read

At start-up, Bitlocker may lock the drive due to suspicious behavior. This could be caused by a number of things such as unexpected shut downs, a bad battery, below freezing temps, or moving the hard drive to a different computer. Bitlocker locks itself to protect the user's data. If you are receiving this message, Desktop Services should be contacted in order to unlock the drive. After unlocking a drive with the recovery key, follow the steps below to make sure the issue does not repeat itself. 

 

If Bitlocker is asking for a key on start-up you may need to suspend and resume protection.

  1. After entering the key provided by Desktop Services, log in to Windows and type "BitLocker" in the start menu search box.
  2. Click on "Manage BitLocker" or "BitLocker Drive Encryption".
  3. Choose "Suspend Protection" and click "Yes" at the prompt.
  4. Make sure it shows the yellow triangle and says "Suspended", then click the "Resume Protection" button.
  5. Fully shut down the computer. Do not restart - a full shutdown is necessary to confirm if this worked.
  6. If the computer boots from a fully shut down state without asking for a recovery key, you are done!
  7. If the computer asks for the recovery key again on boot, contact Desktop Services as it may be necessary to fully decrypt and encrypt the drive again.

If BitLocker presents itself within the Start-Up Repair menu, Windows has identified that something caused the system to shut down unexpectedly and it is trying to resolve the issue. In order for Start-Up Repair to run on a system that is BitLocker encrypted, it will prompt for the BitLocker recovery key. If you are receiving this message, often restarting the PC, and selecting 'Start Windows Normally' when prompted will resolve the issue. This should allow the user to resume working with little interruption. If the screen continues to appear, contact Desktop Services for the recovery key and then verify that the Start-Up Repair completed successfully. If Start-up Repair cannot complete, a re-image may be necessary. 

It is possible that this error message is happening due to a software or hardware issue (i.e. blue screening). If this is the case, please note it is NOT a Bitlocker issue, but a system error.