Formatting of BitLocker-protected drives without proper backup

Stay here if Bitlocker has locked your drive and you wish to format it. This website explains easy Bitlocker encrypted disk, USB, and SD card formatting.

How to partition a Bitlocker-encrypted drive? Bitlocker protects the HD on my computer. All I want to do is wipe the whole drive; I don’t know the login, password, or restore key. The restore key I don’t have is requested when I try to boot from a Windows installation CD, so I can’t access the HDD. Exists a technique to format the entire drive so that it may be used again? to superuser

The BitLocker drive, USB, or SD card can be formatted independently after it is enabled or even locked. See what a Bitlocker partition is and how to simply format a BitLocker drive, USB, or SD card on Windows 10/8/7 PCs by reading this page.

Prior to formatting, check the BitLocker drive state

The next sections will help you format your BitLocker drive and get it back to normal. To check the condition of your BitLocker encrypted drive first, launch Windows File Explorer:

Case 1: locked BitLocker drive

Your drive is now locked if your BitLocker or USB drive has a golden lock icon which indicates encryption. Formatting will need you to unlock it first.

Case 2. Unlocked BitLocker drive

When the blue lock indicator on your BitLocker drive indicates that it is unlocked, the disk data is exposed and you can access and modify the saved files.

In this situation, you can format the bitlocker drive straight away without having to enter the password.

Important: Unlock the BitLocker hard drive, external USB, or SD card if important data is stored there and back up the data to a different safe place beforehand. If you need assistance with the saved data, go to Part 3. Use the following section as a guide for a fast formatting solution.

Format Lost Password BitLocker Encrypted Drive

Whether you lost or forgot your BitLocker password makes no difference. With its powerful Format feature, BLR BitLocker Data Recovery Software will format the SD card, USB flash drive, and BitLocker encrypted hard disk to FAT32, NTFS, FAT, etc. file systems. It is applicable to partition management on internal hard drives and external storage devices for users of all Windows versions.

Using no password, let’s now format a BitLocker drive:

1. To format an external disk or USB, do a right-click and select “Format”.
2. Enter the Cluster size, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and Partition label, then click “OK”.
3. Enter “Yes” to proceed.
4. To format the hard disk portion, click “Execute 1 Task(s)” and then “Apply”.

This will make your hard drive accessible and allow you to save files without BitLocker encryption once more. Don’t forget to forward this fantastic utility to others so they may access their BitLocker protected storage devices online:

Way 1. To unlock BitLocker Drive, use your password

• Find the BitLocker encrypted drive in Windows File Explorer.
• Double-click the external or BitLocker drive, then type your password in the ensuing dialog box.
• Then to open the drive, click “Unlock”.

You may now easily access and manage everything on the BitLocker drive. Use this instructions if you misplaced your Bitlocker password:

Way 2. Clear BitLocker Encryption with Clean Command (Password Not Required)

DiskPart’s clean command can be used to erase the encryption if you have misplaced the BitLocker drive recovery key or password.

Try all you can to locate your password and open the drive, we advise you. Since the partition and data on the BitLocker device will be erased during this process.

Take care with it.

1. After typing cmd into Windows Search, right-click on Command Prompt and choose “Run as administrator.”
2. Enter diskpart.
3. Hit Enter after typing each of the following commands:

• Liste Disk
• choosing disk *
• Partial list
• Choose partition * (substitute the partition label of your USB or BitLocker disk for *).
• Overrides for remove partition

4. To shut the diskpart window, type exit.

You can now format a fresh partition on the free space to NTFS in order to save data once more.

Way 3. To close the diskpart browser, type exit.

You can now format a fresh partition on the free space to NTFS in order to save data once more.

Recall that you were also recently offered a one-on-one remote assistance service by the BLR Tools support staff. For assistance unlocking the BitLocker drive, contact our support staff.

Format BitLocker Drive After Password-Unlock

FIX 1. Format with File Explorer

• Should your BitLocker disk be an external storage device, connect it to your PC.
• Launch Windows File Explorer, then choose “Format” with a right-click on the BitLocker device.
• Click “Start” after selecting “Quick Format” on the format window, choosing the file system (exFAT for a large external drive, FAT32 for USB/SD smaller than 32GB).

Watch the procedure through to the end. It is now once more usable as a standard data drive.

FIX 2 . Organize a BitLocker Encrypted Drive with Disk Management

• Type Control Panel into the search box. Click “Control Panel” after that.
• Open “Administrative Tools” and then “Computer Management” and “Disk Management”.
• Toggle to “Format” after doing a right-click on the drive or partition.
• Make your file system selection and cluster size selection.
• To format a USB flash drive, SD card, or BitLocker encrypted disk, click “OK.”

FIX 3. Format BitLocker Drive in DiskPart Using Format Instruction

1. Enter cmd into the search box, choose “Run as administrator” when you right-click Command Prompt.
2. Enter diskpart.
3. To format the BitLocker drive, type the commands below and press Enter each time:

• Liste Disk
• choosing disk *
• list of volumes
• Choose Volume *
• Quick format fs=ntfs

4. To close DiskPart, type exit and hit enter when it indicates that the format is finished.

You can now once more save files to the drive.

Extra Information about BitLocker Encrypted Drive

1. BitLocker Removal from USB/SD Card/Hard Drive

If Bitlocker is enabled for a drive on your computer, you can typically write to and read from it. But when you try to install Windows, you’ll get the message “Windows cannot be installed to this hard disc space”. Enabled is the Bitlocker drive encryption. alert.

Moreover, some customers choose to disable BitLocker since it interfered with SSD performance. If your SSD has BitLocker enabled, read the article below and decide.

Please remember to use your password to open your BitLocker drive first if it is locked at the moment.

Here is how to go about it:

1. Launch your computer’s Control Panel. Hit “BitLocker Drive Encryption” button.
2. To decrypt a hard disk, USB flash drive, or SD card, locate the Bitlocker encrypted drive and select “Turn Off BitLocker”. Watch the decryption through to the end.

2. File Recovery from BitLocker Encrypted Formatted Drive

File recovery from a formatted BitLocker encrypted hard disk is not possible with any third-party program or solution currently available. Nevertheless, data recovery software such as BLR BitLocker Data Recovery Wizard can retrieve files from an unencrypted formatted hard disk.

Conclusion

We defined BitLocker encryption and the whole procedure for formatting or uninstalling the BitLocker drive from your PC on this page.

We strongly advise you to easily format the BitLocker drive, USB or SD card after first unlocking the drive and backing up your data to safeguard your data security.