 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Bloody Bitlocker....
| Author | Message | ||||
Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
Hi all. I got given a laptop that had a drink spilled on it, now it refuses to boot. The client just wants to save anything on the machine, they are prepared to sacrifice the laptop, to get the data off it, cos it belongs to a teenager who was doing all their schoolwork on it - and NOT backing ANY of it up. How come teens of this day and age, seem to know NOTHING about backups - at all?! (rhetorical) Anyway, it is a Microsoft Surface Go machine, and after cracking it open and disconnecting the battery, I found the tiny little M.2 SSD, which is removable(thank you, Go designers!), so plop that into a M.2-to-USB reader thing, drive shows up on my machine, BUT......it is locked with Bitlocker, and it wants the 48-digit code to unlock it, which the client knows NOTHING about. This is probably cos it may well have been saved in the BIOS, and so they have never needed to use the code or ever enter it, but now that the machine won't even POST after having that drink meant for it's user, there is simply no way I can ever recover the Bitlocker 48-digit code from the machine, cos the machine is effectively dead. Does anyone know of any software tools that you can use to bypass Bitlocker? Perhaps it can be done by plugging the drive into Linux and running something there? I can see the reason for having Bitlocker, but all it does is create yet another barrier for those of us who are genuinely trying to fix a problem, especially if the client has no idea it is even in effect in the first place. Sigh. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
Rickard5 Guru  Joined: 31/03/2022 Location: United StatesPosts: 463 |
Read This Micro$oft Owns your Data thank the DMCA anyway READ THIS I may be Vulgar, but , while I'm poor, I'm Industrious, Honest, and trustworthy! I Know my Place |
||||
Quazee137 Guru Joined: 07/08/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 593 |
Grogster if you can stand PCB up and spray with alcohol a few times. I got a tablet that had soda spilled next to it and it sucked some up. It took 3 times spraying and wiping "fine paint brush" but it worked and moved files to SD card. luck |
||||
panky Guru Joined: 02/10/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1114 |
G, This article may prove helpful, Doug ... almost all of the Maximites, the MicromMites, the MM Extremes, the ArmMites, the PicoMite and loving it! |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9610 |
Thanks chums.  After speaking with the client, she informs me that she has a MS account, so I suggested she log into that using another computer, and when she did that, all her files were accessable that way, so she was able to use another computer to download and save all the files she needs, which must have been auto-syncing with the laptop. Crisis averted. I love a story with a happy ending, but this could have EASILY been a very horrible ending, with the data gone forever, cos they had/have no idea what the key was or that bitlocker was even in effect at all, very effectively locking you out of your own data. I personally think those kinds of "Features" should only ever be enabled by the user, and never set like that from factory for exactly this reason. As I said before, I can understand WHY they have that protection in place, especially on laptops that can easily be stolen, but while bitlocker does seem to very effectively stop anyone who steals a machine from accessing any information on the SSD from that device, it is a nightmare for people like me when clients approach me for data recovery like this, and then you find bitlocker is enabled, and the client does not even know about it, so you're effectively in brick-wall neighbourhood!    As the laptop seems totally dead, I have scored a 128GB M.2 SSD in any case. I can reformat it and use it - one sure way to get rid of bitlocker!  And yes, Quazee137, I plan to have a bit of a clean up of the machine to see if I can revive it. It's in bits now anyway, so makes sense to see if it can be saved, but I am not holding my breath. Usually drinks spilt into laptops is fatal for the laptop nine out of ten times. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 7937 |
A lot depends on the drink. Sweet stuff like orange juice is terrible - it can slowly eat the copper off PCBs. :( Luckily, after removing non-sealed components like speakers/sounders and batteries, a lot of PCBs can be put through a dish washer then left to dry naturally for a few days. Edited 2022-08-31 16:56 by Mixtel90 Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
Nimue Guru Joined: 06/08/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 420 |
Acknowledge the rhetorical - BUT this is a real issue for me. /ranton What seems to be the case is that "they" (generic category for all under 30yo) don't actually seem to know where their files actually are. "The Cloud" is a real thing to them (not just someone else's computer) - Watching a student juggle DropBox, Google Docs and OneDrive can be quite comical. When they click "Save" in Word / Excel, it defaults to "My Documents" -- if files are elsewhere things just get lost. And dont get me talking about file naming strategies). Sticking in a USB and it mounting as "G" they can just about handle -- especially as it pops up on screen. /rantoff All that is actually relevant to my PicoMite experience in schools. The ability to point to a chip and say that when you save to FLASH it goes in there... or to SD card and it goes there -- seems to be a real eye opener to students. Likewise, using Tera Term (and increasing PuTTY via Linux ) and being able to say that when you type, the characters "go down this wire" into the Pico -- again seems to help them consolidate understanding. N Entropy is not what it used to be |
||||
| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10310 |
Blame Apple - they started it |
||||
| Volhout Guru Joined: 05/03/2018 Location: NetherlandsPosts: 5089 |
Not sure ... My Blackberry data was also backed in their servers. PicomiteVGA PETSCII ROBOTS |
||||
| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10310 |
Yes but even on a stand-alone non-connected Mac normal people who use them have no idea about where their files are unless they are really into IT |
||||
| lizby Guru Joined: 17/05/2016 Location: United StatesPosts: 3378 |
And not just under 30yo--lots of non-tech folks have no idea where their data is if they can't access something through their customary app. And even for people with some understanding it can be hard to know where an app had decided to put something and why. My nephew recently sent a MMS message to my Android phone. It wasn't just viewable, I had to click "Download"--but after I did that and it said "Downloaded", there was no evident way to view it. I spent about 10 minutes searching for where downloaded MMS messages go, but it wasn't in the customary places and I never found the file. PicoMite, Armmite F4, SensorKits, MMBasic Hardware, Games, etc. on fruitoftheshed |
||||
| pwillard Guru Joined: 07/06/2022 Location: United StatesPosts: 313 |
It's almost like everyone wants to take some simple process (saving a file) and put their own spin on it... to make money from you... for doing simple mundane tasks. Your files are in the cloud... (but are they safe from prying eyes and data breaches?) /rant-on And now, the concept of "buying software that you own" is being challenged companies who now only "lease" you access to the software... which in a short time far exceeds the price you would have paid to own prior versions. Renting will slowly become the most common way people use software and people will forget you one actually just "bought" it once and done. Like the under 30's who don't know what a floppy disk is now... the old simple ways will be forgotten. /rant-off |
||||
twofingers Guru Joined: 02/06/2014 Location: GermanyPosts: 1593 |
+1  Michael causality ≠correlation ≠coincidence |
||||
| Nimue Guru Joined: 06/08/2020 Location: United KingdomPosts: 420 |
Interestingly I've just cancelled all my music subscription services and gone back to CD. 200million songs to choose from and I only every listened to the same music - so I thought I'd reclaim the linear physical experience -- the best thing ever. Feels like I'm sticking it to Spotify, Amazon, iTunes, etc etc. N Entropy is not what it used to be |
||||
 Print this page |
 |
The Back Shed's forum code is written, and hosted, in Australia. | © JAQ Software 2025 |
