BitLocker Key Question


Harley51

Active member
Local time
7:30 AM
Posts
5
OS
Windows 11 Home
I upgraded my mother board to a Asus Rog Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4. Bitlocker is turned off. (Has never been turned on). How to I get the bitlocker key. It's not on my Microsoft Account. Does it have to be turned on to record the Bitlocker key?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Asus GU6903H
    CPU
    11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900H@ 2.50 GHZ
    Memory
    16 gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3060 Laptop GPU
    Monitor(s) Displays
    16 In
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900k 3.20 GHz
    Motherboard
    Asus Rog Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4
    Memory
    64 GB
I upgraded my mother board to a Asus Rog Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4. Bitlocker is turned off. (Has never been turned on). How to I get the bitlocker key. It's not on my Microsoft Account. Does it have to be turned on to record the Bitlocker key?
The key will be generated when you enable BitLocker on a drive. The wizard will then guide you through saving a copy of the BL key. It will give you an option to print the key, save it to a file, or save it to the cloud.

At any time thereafter you can again retrieve the key by right-clicking the drive and choosing the option to manage BitLocker.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-11700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime Z590-A
    Memory
    128GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    No GPU - CPU graphics only (for now)
    Sound Card
    Realtek (on motherboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Envy 32
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    1 x 1TB NVMe Gen 4 x 4 SSD
    1 x 2TB NVMe Gen 3 x 4 SSD
    2 x 512GB 2.5" SSDs
    2 x 8TB HD
    PSU
    Corsair HX850i
    Case
    Corsair iCue 5000X RGB
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black cooler + 10 case fans
    Keyboard
    CODE backlit mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Additional options installed:
    WiFi 6E PCIe adapter
    ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 PCIe adapter
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
    CPU
    Intel i7-1255U
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.3-inch IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
    Hard Drives
    2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
    PSU
    USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
    Mouse
    Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
    Keyboard
    Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
The key will be generated when you enable BitLocker on a drive. The wizard will then guide you through saving a copy of the BL key. It will give you an option to print the key, save it to a file, or save it to the cloud.

At any time thereafter you can again retrieve the key by right-clicking the drive and choosing the option to manage BitLocker.

I started saving to onedrive, as I could rename the text file to something more meaningful i.e.

from

BitLocker Recovery Key 9C19080D-14DE-4555-B0F6-C56D0F87FDC2.txt

to

BRK 9C19080D-D Drive 16-04-22.txt


Problem saving to MSA is that you get multiple keys as you create them and hard to work out which ones are latest (as it does not give drive letter) if you have bitlocked drives on different dates, so you can delete ones you no longer need.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I started saving to onedrive, as I could rename the text file to something more meaningful i.e.

from

BitLocker Recovery Key 9C19080D-14DE-4555-B0F6-C56D0F87FDC2.txt

to

BRK 9C19080D-D Drive 16-04-22.txt


Problem saving to MSA is that you get multiple keys as you create them and hard to work out which ones are latest (as it does not give drive letter) if you have bitlocked drives on different dates, so you can delete ones you no longer need.
I agree. It gets to be a little bit of a pain to manage them.

However, do note that if Windows needs to ask you for a BitLocker key it will show you a unique identifier for the disk. When you save the BitLocker key, not only does it save the key, but the unique identifier will be saved in the file with the key, and, just to take it a step further, the file name you save contains the unique identifier in the file name.

So, while it is not strictly necessary to associate a drive letter with the BitLocker key, I still like to put it all in a single file. I'll list stuff out like this:

Recovery key for OS drive on System1: <Recovery Key>
Recovery key for External Seagate Software Collection Disk: <Recovery Key>
etc.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-11700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime Z590-A
    Memory
    128GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    No GPU - CPU graphics only (for now)
    Sound Card
    Realtek (on motherboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Envy 32
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    1 x 1TB NVMe Gen 4 x 4 SSD
    1 x 2TB NVMe Gen 3 x 4 SSD
    2 x 512GB 2.5" SSDs
    2 x 8TB HD
    PSU
    Corsair HX850i
    Case
    Corsair iCue 5000X RGB
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black cooler + 10 case fans
    Keyboard
    CODE backlit mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Additional options installed:
    WiFi 6E PCIe adapter
    ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 PCIe adapter
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
    CPU
    Intel i7-1255U
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.3-inch IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
    Hard Drives
    2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
    PSU
    USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
    Mouse
    Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
    Keyboard
    Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
I agree. It gets to be a little bit of a pain to manage them.

However, do note that if Windows needs to ask you for a BitLocker key it will show you a unique identifier for the disk. When you save the BitLocker key, not only does it save the key, but the unique identifier will be saved in the file with the key, and, just to take it a step further, the file name you save contains the unique identifier in the file name.

So, while it is not strictly necessary to associate a drive letter with the BitLocker key, I still like to put it all in a single file. I'll list stuff out like this:

Recovery key for OS drive on System1: <Recovery Key>
Recovery key for External Seagate Software Collection Disk: <Recovery Key>
etc.
Yeah I am aware of the unique id but the way MS Stores it is just a list. You cannot at first glance say - that is the D drive. You have to go to access drive, do not put in password, select forgotten password, then it tells you the uid.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
Yeah I am aware of the unique id but the way MS Stores it is just a list. You cannot at first glance say - that is the D drive. You have to go to access drive, do not put in password, select forgotten password, then it tells you the uid.
Understood. I was agreeing with you. It gets confusing with those long strings of digits.

It's also a royal pain in the backside when you have to type that long key multiple times. Just last week I had an issue that I posted about here, where during the installation of the April Patch Tuesday updates one of my machines got into a repeated blue screen boot loop. Every time I tried a recovery step, I had to enter that blasted long key. Got real annoying real fast :-).
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-11700K
    Motherboard
    ASUS Prime Z590-A
    Memory
    128GB Crucial Ballistix 3200MHz DRAM
    Graphics Card(s)
    No GPU - CPU graphics only (for now)
    Sound Card
    Realtek (on motherboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP Envy 32
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440
    Hard Drives
    1 x 1TB NVMe Gen 4 x 4 SSD
    1 x 2TB NVMe Gen 3 x 4 SSD
    2 x 512GB 2.5" SSDs
    2 x 8TB HD
    PSU
    Corsair HX850i
    Case
    Corsair iCue 5000X RGB
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black cooler + 10 case fans
    Keyboard
    CODE backlit mechanical keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1 Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Additional options installed:
    WiFi 6E PCIe adapter
    ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 PCIe adapter
  • Operating System
    Win11 Pro 23H2
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 2
    CPU
    Intel i7-1255U
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC3306-CG codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    13.3-inch IPS Display
    Screen Resolution
    WQXGA (2560 x 1600)
    Hard Drives
    2 TB 4 x 4 NVMe SSD
    PSU
    USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 Power / Charging
    Mouse
    Buttonless Glass Precision Touchpad
    Keyboard
    Backlit, spill resistant keyboard
    Internet Speed
    1Gb Up / 1Gb Down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    WiFi 6e / Bluetooth 5.1 / Facial Recognition / Fingerprint Sensor / ToF (Time of Flight) Human Presence Sensor
Understood. I was agreeing with you. It gets confusing with those long strings of digits.

It's also a royal pain in the backside when you have to type that long key multiple times. Just last week I had an issue that I posted about here, where during the installation of the April Patch Tuesday updates one of my machines got into a repeated blue screen boot loop. Every time I tried a recovery step, I had to enter that blasted long key. Got real annoying real fast :-).
I just cut and paste it from text file.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0

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