MichaelS
New member
- Local time
- 4:37 PM
- Posts
- 1
- OS
- Windows 11
Hi forum members,
Grateful for any help with the following issue.
I was trying to help a friend who had a problem with McAfee-themed malware popups on their Windows 11 Pro machine. I installed AVG and Malware Bytes to scan for malware / adware. When these found nothing, I ran the AVG Clear Tool from AVG to remove AVG completely. I restarted the machine and got a blue BitLocker Recovery screen asking for a recovery key, with this message:
Bitlocker needs your recovery key to unlock your drive because the Boot Configuration Data setting 0x25000020 has changed for the following boot application: WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi.
My friend does not have the Bitlocker recovery key. I checked and the key has not been backed up to their Microsoft account either. The person who originally installed Windows 11 Pro on the machine has no record of the recovery key either.
I am preparing to do a clean install of Windows 11 on the machine, with the loss of all personal files.
Before I do this, is there anything else I can try to recover the machine and data, or is a clean install my only option?
Of course, after the install, I will backup the Bitlocker key and ensure my friend backs up data (which is something I should have done before making any interventions).
Thank you,
Michael
Grateful for any help with the following issue.
I was trying to help a friend who had a problem with McAfee-themed malware popups on their Windows 11 Pro machine. I installed AVG and Malware Bytes to scan for malware / adware. When these found nothing, I ran the AVG Clear Tool from AVG to remove AVG completely. I restarted the machine and got a blue BitLocker Recovery screen asking for a recovery key, with this message:
Bitlocker needs your recovery key to unlock your drive because the Boot Configuration Data setting 0x25000020 has changed for the following boot application: WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi.
My friend does not have the Bitlocker recovery key. I checked and the key has not been backed up to their Microsoft account either. The person who originally installed Windows 11 Pro on the machine has no record of the recovery key either.
I am preparing to do a clean install of Windows 11 on the machine, with the loss of all personal files.
Before I do this, is there anything else I can try to recover the machine and data, or is a clean install my only option?
Of course, after the install, I will backup the Bitlocker key and ensure my friend backs up data (which is something I should have done before making any interventions).
Thank you,
Michael
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 11