My laptop broke and the IT people took out the hardrive and made it a external. Now the new laptop does not want to open the external harddrive as it is locked and we need the code. We aren't able to find the key on my microsoft accout. Please help

Hi Nicky Ferreira,

Has your problem been solved? If it has, please hit Accept the answer to support me. If it has not, please tell me more about your issues, I will help you.

Thank you so much!!

QQ.

Dear Nicky Ferreira,

Thank you for your question. Based on your description, the drive is likely protected with BitLocker encryption, which requires a recovery key to unlock. Recovery keys are usually stored in your Microsoft account, printed or saved by your IT team, or kept in Active Directory/Azure AD if managed by your organization. If you cannot locate the key in your Microsoft account, we recommend checking with your IT department to see if the recovery key was backed up centrally. Without the recovery key, the encrypted drive cannot be accessed, as this is a security measure to protect your data. Once you retrieve the recovery key, you can enter it when prompted to unlock the external drive and regain access to your files.

If this guidance helps you resolve the issue, we kindly ask that you mark this response as “Accept the answer”, so that other users facing similar problems can quickly find the solution.

Thank you so muchh!!

Kind regards,

QQ.