Dataquest

Data Recovery You Can Trust

Category: Windows

  • Where Is My Bitlocker Key?

    If you’ve been having computer problems, you may have been asked for your Bitlocker key. In most cases you won’t be able to access your files without this key. Even if you know your login password!

    Bitlocker should never be enabled without a backup of the key, but there are cases when that can happen by mistake. Fortunately the keys are usually saved into your Microsoft account, or other corporate network account.

    Where to look?

    For a list of ways to find your Bitlocker keys, see the official guidance by Microsoft. In particular, you should login to:

    • Your own, or any other Microsoft accounts that were ever used on your computer here.
    • Any work or school accounts that were ever used. Try to login with your credentials here.
    • If you had a friend or relative setup your computer for you, ask them if they made a copy of the key, or ask them to check the links above to see if your key was saved automatically into their own account.

    You’ve found the key, now what?

    Finding the key is only part of the solution. In normal operation you shouldn’t need to type your Bitlocker Recovery Key very often (or ever really). If you’ve got back in, it’s a really good idea to make a backup of your files ASAP. You may be in the middle of a bigger problem.

    If the key is not accepted

    If you’ve found the key in your Microsoft account, but the key is not accepted when you type it, you may already have an underlying disk problem. Keep the key somewhere safe, and then contact us about data recovery. We’ll need to recover the drive first, and then decrypt it using the key.

    Contact Us Now…

    For a fast reply from a real person.
  • Small RAIDs in Home PCs

    Small RAIDs in Home PCs

    Back in the bad old days (mid 2000s), before SSDs and 8TB hard drives, PC builders faced a difficult decision. Everyone wanted more storage space, but large disks were expensive. Fortunately for the manufacturers, most PCs could invisibly combine two smaller & cheaper disks into a larger one, using RAID 0 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). The technology had previously been confined to data centres where servers used RAIDs for various performance & security benefits. Unfortunately for most customers, they had no idea this was happening in their PC until things stopped working. Either the customer, or a technician would open the PC to find two smaller disks where they expected to see a single larger one.

    If you were lucky, the tech would call in a specialist 👋 and your data would be recovered safely. If you were less lucky, there are lots of ways to wreck this setup.

    The best way to trash a RAID 0 is by not realising that’s what you’re looking at in the first place. It’s easy to mistake the disks as two independent disks. We’ve seen far too many cases where one of the disks was erased or reinstalled with Windows as an attempt to resurrect the PC. At best, this will make the recovery difficult. At worst, it can make recovery impossible.

    Without trying to sound like a broken record, this is another example of my catchphrase – Most damage to data happens AFTER the original failure.

  • Windows Login Password: Is It Secure?

    Windows Login Password: Is It Secure?

    Just because you have a login password on your computer, don’t think your private data is secure. It would not take much to access the data without your consent or password. The best way to ensure your private data is secure is to encrypt your files. This comes with it’s own risks, especially if you forget your password and lock yourself out of your files. So you need to make sure you have backups at all times. Also don’t be fooled into thinking that if your files are encrypted, you are safe against ransomware type virus attacks. If infected by ransomware, it will just encrypt on top of your encrypted files. See other post on latest ransomware.