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Choose how to unlock your drive at startup

When I initially encrypted my OS drive, and BitLocker asked me how I wanted to unlock my drive at startup, I chose "Enter a password".

Now I'm wondering if I can change that to USB drive. I've been searching around without any results.

I've tried right-click on drive > "Manage BitLocker" > "Backup recovery key to usb drive"

Then left the usb drive in the machine in the hopes that it would read the text file. This doesn't seem to work.

Any ideas?

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  • Dirty solution: You should decrypt your hard drive with your password then encrypt it again and at this time you should choose Usb Flash Drive.
    – Arani
    Commented May 9, 2016 at 4:44
  • I think that's what I'm going to do... I can't see any other way after an hour's worth of googling
    – spikej
    Commented May 9, 2016 at 16:14

1 Answer 1

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You can add different types of key to the bitlocker volume. The Windows GUI is limited.

Also the terminology is somewhat confusing and ambiguous. (External Key file, recovery key, recovery file, recovery key within a recovery txt file. Just be aware of the different key-commands and double check your expectations.)

Please open this in a new tab, it may provide some insights. 

Manage-bde -protectors C: -add /?

You will have to update the command to your needs. Please understand the difference between a recovery .txt document with numbers and an actual key file. (*.bek) ("External Key file")

manage-bde -protectors C: -add -StartupKey F:

F: is USB drive.

If the system detects the USB stick, it will not ask for a password and simply boot.

Side note You might want to enable legacy usb in the bios if your USB stick is not detected at all. You can check if you ask for the F8 boot menu. The USB stick should be listed there.

You may delete the password protector after you have successfully booted up from your USB stick in several ports. (Test is; hubs may misbehave.)

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  • Worked brilliantly! Thanks! You just saved me a couple of hours of decrypting/encrypting!
    – spikej
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 0:32
  • You are welcome. Do not forget to save your RecoveryPassword somewhere safe (a lot of digits). Assume losing your USB stick.
    – A71
    Commented May 10, 2016 at 7:01

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