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I ran into a blue screen of death that is non repairable on my windows 10 pro OS. I had a backup drive connected which I need to view the back up drive. I connected it to my laptop pc which has windows 7 home on it. When I go to my drives and try to open the backup drive, a message says unable to open. It gives no offer to enter a key. A MS level two tech said it should offer that so I can view the drive. Can anyone please help? Thanks, Danny

Danny d
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  • Windows 7 Home doesn’t support the version of encryption used by BitLocker from a Windows 10 machine. You will have to use a Windows 10 machine. What exactly is a “AMS level 2 tech”? – Ramhound Dec 24 '20 at 15:18

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Bitlocker requires a PRO version of Windows and it has to be the SAME or NEWER version of Windows.
So if the drive is made using Windwos 10 Pro, you are going to need another Windows 10 Pro system to unlock it.

So re-install your main machine (it is broken anyway now) and then re-connect the backup-drive.

I do hope your still have the Bitlocker password used for that backup-drive because without that password you won't be able to open it.

Tonny
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  • Windows 7 Ultimate was the only version of Windows 7 that supported BitLocker. However, the encryption used by BitLocker changed with Windows 8 so BitLocker on Windows 7 isn’t compatible by default. – Ramhound Dec 25 '20 at 00:53
  • @Ramhound BitLocker was also available on Windows 7 Pro and Enterprise. (The only difference between those 2 and Ultimate is some extra multimedia stuff that Ultimate had pre-installed. The Windows version (7, 8, 8.1 and 10) matters. You can only read a BitlLocker disk on the same or newer version of Windows. Actually 8 and 8.1 use exactly the same BitLocker but 8 refuses to read 8.1 unless a specific patch is installed that tells it 8.1 BitLocker is safe to read. (Microsoft slipped that patch into one of the security rollups so, as long as your 8 is up2date, it will also read 8.1 disks.) – Tonny Dec 25 '20 at 11:58
  • BitLocker was not a feature of Windows 7 Professional. It wasn’t until Windows 8 Professional did it come to that edition. The encryption used by default was updated with the release of either Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 not entirely sure which version it was. Windows 7 Enterprise also supported it. I am talking about FDE on the system drive. Windows 7 had wider support for BitLocker To Go which always blurred and confused users – Ramhound Dec 25 '20 at 16:28
  • [Source](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/199092/bitlocker-on-windows-7-pro.html) – Ramhound Dec 25 '20 at 16:34
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You need a higher version of Windows 7 than the Home version to unlock a Bitlocker disk (hoping that you have saved the recovery key).

Your options are:

  • Find a computer with a non-Home version to save your data
  • Repair the old computer (if possible)
  • Create virtual machine with a non-Home version of Windows 7.

The latest option will result with a trial version of Windows 7, but that might be enough to save the data.

For example, you could use VMware and do Adding Physical Disks to a Virtual Machine.

For getting a suitable Windows 7 ISO, see the post
Where can I download Windows 7 (legally from Microsoft)?

harrymc
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  • Windows 7 Ultimate was the only version of Windows 7 that supported BitLocker. However, the encryption used by BitLocker changed with Windows 8 so BitLocker on Windows 7 isn’t compatible by default. – Ramhound Dec 25 '20 at 00:53