[shark]

My last laptop died. I use a computer support company I am contracted to and they cant get at the files on the old hard drive because the data is encrypted. They say:

When the laptop was set up it was simply switched on as it came from the manufacturer, and set up with Microsoft Office and your data transferred to it. We did not add any additional software that would encrypt the hard drive. As previously discussed all windows operating systems come with encryption capabilities built in called Bitlocker, this feature usually needs to be enabled. This can sometimes be turned on automatically by the Windows OS depending on how you sign in to the Laptop or by other manufacturer software that they install to Windows before it is shipped out from the manufacturer.

All I ever had to do when starting the laptop was put in a password. There wasn't an extra level of security that I was aware of which is what I understand Bitlocker is. Needless to say I have not backed up the data. Ever.

Suggestions?

 
 

[Jim]

Bring old laptop back to life and back up files

[shark]

Bring old laptop back to life and back up files

It couldn't be resurrected

[dunnyg]

Probably not of use, but my work laptop is encrypted and you never have to enter a second password, just one of the start up programs that flashes on the screen is the encryption software. Can't help on how to sort the problem though. Good luck!

[schloosh]

Can you stick your drive in another, as similar as possible, laptop and boot as normal.
I very much doubt the drive was locked to any specific hardware.

If you can find out what encryption software was used in the first place you stand a better chance of decrypting it, there is usually a tool available for these things.

[shark]

Can you stick your drive in another, as similar as possible, laptop and boot as normal.
I very much doubt the drive was locked to any specific hardware.

If you can find out what encryption software was used in the first place you stand a better chance of decrypting it, there is usually a tool available for these things.

That's what my support company tried to do without success. There are disc recovery specialists but they charge a lot whether successful or not

[schloosh]

What make/model of machine was it?
&
Which version of windows was it running?

[shark]

HP Probook. Don't know which version of Windows

[schloosh]

HP machines have pre-installed security tools, I think contacting HP support might be your best bet, I've read threads on the internet where people have done that, send off their drives, the passwords and a drive to copy the data too and it worked.

I don't understand why putting the drive in a similar machine wouldn't work unless the encryption is pre-boot or from the bios etc.

[shark]

Thanks schloosh

[shark]

HP machines have pre-installed security tools, I think contacting HP support might be your best bet, I've read threads on the internet where people have done that, send off their drives, the passwords and a drive to copy the data too and it worked

After making these suggestions to the support company one of the other engineers remembered he had some old de-encryption software at home and it worked - desktop items recovered n'all \o/

[schloosh]

Awesome!
Glad to have been of some help!

[Paul B]

After making these suggestions to the support company one of the other engineers remembered he had some old de-encryption software at home and it worked - desktop items recovered n'all \o/

So you've dashed out and bought a NAS to use with your off-site backup?

[Teaboy]

It seems unlikely that they'd be able to break bit locker encryption with some software they had lying around!

I don't understand why putting the drive in a similar machine wouldn't work unless the encryption is pre-boot or from the bios etc.

This is what the TPM chip in most modern laptops is designed to do.