Perhaps you have relatives or friends that ask you to work on your PC but you do not have access to their passwords, or do not wish to compromise the integrity of the password by asking them for it or blanking it?Įnter the bootable USB stick.

After you get back into Windows, go check your device encryption properties under Settings > Security > Device encryption I believe.Have you ever found yourself locked out of your own machine? You just changed your password, and sometime in the night it managed to slip out of your mind and evaporate up in dreamspace? If you don't see it there, go into the BIOS Setup and look for some sort of option in there. You should be able to do that by pressing F12 at startup, and I believe in there you'll see an option to update the BIOS without needing Windows. If you don't know your Recovery Key, then you should flash your system back to whatever BIOS version you were running before in order to get the system to boot.

If it's asking for a Recovery Key, your drive is encrypted and the TPM is refusing to release the key automatically because the system has failed the 'platform integrity check' due to the BIOS version change. Anyway, Windows wouldn't be just 'mistaken' in thinking you have BitLocker enabled when you don't. While it's true that Window 10 Home doesn't have BitLocker, it does have a generically named 'Device encryption' feature that uses BitLocker technology but has fewer management capabilities and is only available when certain hardware requirements are met. To avoid this stress in future, I recommend setting up a restore point and purchasing a reputable back up software, I've just purchased Acronis.īitLocker is prompting for a Recovery Key and you cannot locate the key The above worked for me: I am now able to enter Windows and access my files. Once these steps are done, restart the system and let us know if you are able to boot into Windows. Under “Security” select TPM 2.0 Securityġ3. 'Please follow the steps mentioned below, and let us know if you are able to boot to the OS.Ĩ. I tweeted Dell support and they were finally able to help me access my laptop once again. I called Microsoft, they said it's up to the manufacturer.

Upon turning on my laptop I was faced with the 'Enter your BitLocker Recovery Key', despite having never installed or enabled it, so I didn't have any recovery keys generated or saved. I believe it was triggered by a BIOS update I installed last week.

Windows asking for password at boot