Check BitLocker Drive State - Locked or Unlocked If you are trying to format the BitLocker drive, follow through the following parts to restore your drive back to a normal state: However, if the hard drive or USB is encrypted with Windows BitLocker, things become a bit more complex. In most cases, you can easily format or even wipe a hard drive. When you enabled or even locked BitLocker drive, USB, SD card, you can format it on your own. I want to remove BitLocker to decrypt the hard drive, but the problem is that I don't know the password nor recovery key.Ĭan I format the BitLocker drive and make it usable again?"Ī: Yes. "Several days ago, I got a Bitlocker encrypted external hard drive. Can I Format a BitLocker Encrypted Hard Drive
When enabling BitLocker on a hard disk, USB flash drive, or SD card on your computer, Microsoft Windows encodes the files and folders stored on the device so that only the permitted users can access the data.
It's designed to protect data by providing encryption for an entire volume."
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Format BitLocker Drive on Windows 11/10/8/7 (4 Methods) BitLocker Drive Overviewīefore getting to know how to format Bitlocker drive, you may first need to know:Īccording to Wikipedia, "BitLocker is a volume encryption feature included in all Windows versions starting with Windows Vista. Unlock BitLocker Drive Before Formatting Part 3. PAGE CONTENT: BitLocker Drive Overview Part 1.