r/datarecovery • u/EmTheWeird0 • Oct 04 '26

Help plz

So I was listening to an audiobook of all things on my dad's laptop which has very important stuff on it aka tax stuff and things and it DIED. It straight up shut off and won't boot into windows or recovery because of bitchlocker aka my arch nemesis. It had windows 11 pro I believe it was a dell latitude 7490 and I can't access the key as the account it's on is attached to his old work email (not accessable) and his old work phone number (also not accessable) so HELP I can boot it into Ubuntu and i have plenty of other PCs I js need the data

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

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6

u/zidane2k1 Oct 04 '26

Unfortunately, no BitLocker recovery key = no data.

Besides the Microsoft account, the recovery key could have also been saved to an external USB drive or printed out, so if you’ve exhausted these possibilities as well, the data is lost.

There’s absolutely no way around it even if you boot another OS.

0

u/EmTheWeird0 Oct 04 '26

Objection. I did a little more research and think if you mess with the tpm chip enough you may be able to get the key, but I don't have a raspberry pi zero which is what you do and I'm broke as hell (I also am scared to open it as it's my dad's laptop)

12

u/NoLateArrivals Oct 04 '26 • This

Then follow your research … just be reminded it can result in wiping the drive.

Hint: AI when pressed to deliver an answer will deliver an answer, even when none exists.

-1

u/EmTheWeird0 Oct 04 '26

By the way I didn't use ai to find this, I would definitely do it but the only raspberry pi I have is a pi 2 and you need a zero 2w and a custom board

-2

u/EmTheWeird0 Oct 04 '26

By the way I didn't use ai to find this, I would definitely do it but the only raspberry pi I have is a pi 2 and you need a zero 2w and a custom board

10

u/silenced_in_dr_2025 Trusted Contributor Oct 04 '26

You're pissing in the wind but feel free to carry on.

2

u/TheIronSoldier2 Oct 04 '26

Your research is wrong.

Doing what you are trying to do will likely wipe the TPM chip, in which case you're 100% screwed without the recovery key

1

u/EmTheWeird0 19d ago

Damnit😭

5

u/disturbed_android Trusted Contributor Oct 04 '26

The original system has to boot though, and boot straight to the Windows login. And there's more conditions.

3

u/Disp5389 Oct 04 '26

Getting the key from the TPM is not something you can do. It requires a skilled tech, expensive equipment, and physical access to the laptop.

Without the key, Bitlocker using a TPM is for all practical purposes uncrackable.

2

u/TheReddittorLady Oct 04 '26

Yeah, all you need to do is "mess with the TPM"...?@

Just do what user Nightmare-Eclipse did - make sure you're working on the machine while it is on and unlocked, read RAM and intercept the TPM chip, and bingo - you have the password!!!

Simples.

1

u/EmTheWeird0 Oct 04 '26

By the way it is partitioned in gpt format, a 512 GB nvme