Bitlocker after removing mcafee

Question

o since yesterday after i uninstalled McAfee antivirus, bitlocker got activated all of a sudden. And upon the first restart my only drive (system-windows drive C:) got locked, and i've been going through questions about this topic in the community to no avail...

I have never set bitlocker, there is no bitlocker recover key saved anywhere (neither online nor a usb)

Answer 1

Hello!

I'm truly sorry to hear about the issue you're facing with your drive encryption. Let me explain the situation clearly:

BitLocker, Microsoft's encryption tool, is not enabled automatically by Windows under normal circumstances. It must be manually configured by the user or activated through an administrative policy, such as in corporate environments. However, there are specific situations where it might be automatically enabled, such as on devices that support Device Encryption. This feature is typically present on modern hardware running Windows and linked to a Microsoft account.

Based on your description, it seems that your secondary drive has been encrypted and now requires a recovery key to access the data. Unfortunately, if this recovery key is not available, there is no technical way to unlock the drive, as BitLocker's encryption is extremely secure and designed to prevent unauthorized access, even with advanced tools.

As for the secondary drive, if it was encrypted by BitLocker and the recovery key cannot be found, the only solution is to format it to use it again. Unfortunately, this will result in the permanent loss of all data stored on the drive. This is undoubtedly a frustrating and disheartening situation, especially when important information is at stake, and I completely understand how upsetting this can be.

Before proceeding with formatting, here are a few final suggestions you can try:

Check linked accounts: If your device is associated with a Microsoft account, visit the Microsoft portal (https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey) to see if the recovery key is stored there.

Look for backups: If you’ve made any recent backups, check if the data can be restored from them.

Review old documentation: Sometimes, the recovery key might have been saved in a physical location (such as printed on paper) or in a digital file stored on another device.

I deeply regret that this situation has led to data loss and understand how difficult this can be. If you need additional assistance with formatting or any other technical matter, I’m here to guide you as best as I can.

Stay strong, and let me know how I can help further!