How to access 64bit win10 bitlocker drive from Vista 32bit PC (crash)


  1. Posts : 1
    Vista, q4os, win10 bitlocker internal drive
       #1

    How to access 64bit win10 bitlocker drive from Vista 32bit PC (crash)


    . . .

    Morning all!

    was in the middle of implementing a new backup plan and my old desktop died. Was an i5 with win10 clean installed from win7 roots, bitlocker enabled.

    I have been given an even older desktop with Vista still installed (suprisingly zippy, even with just 2gb ram) and have got it plugged in fine, and the system recognises it's presence, but not the win10 file system:

    "File system unknown"

    ^ response from > control panel > computer management > disk management

    Meantime, Did a TestDisk analyse and the drive gets green for healthy. But the Dos GUI does my head in.

    What can I do (if anything between such different systems) to a) get the file system recognised and b)access bitlocker to type in my password (yes i have it lol), and be able to recover and back up my files? Preferably via an app that I don't need to be a rocket scientist to use.

    The Vista system is very out of date as the desktop has been sitting there unused for a couple of years. I have not connected it to the internet and am copying analysis software over via usb. I could attempt an upgrade to win10 but on a 32bit system? Hmmm ...

    Thanks in advance for any advice :)

    NAN
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 4,187
    Windows 11 Pro, 24H2
       #2

    Welcome to TenForums!

    I suspect that Windows Vista likely did not support the newer BitLocker encryption schemes that Windows 10 uses. That is almost certainly why you cannot recognize the disk.

    Here are the options that I can think of off the top of my head:

    1) Connect the drive in question to a Win10 system that will recognize the drive, then decrypt the drive. Then it should be accessible by Vista.

    2) Install Win 10 on that Vista system (yes, Win 10 is still available as 32-bit). If there is anything on that Vista system that you need to keep, you might want to backup that data first. In fact, you may want to create a backup image of the entire disk so that you can recover the system to the current state if needed. Then, perform a clean install of Win 10.

    3) If you have any backups of the data from the BitLocker encrypted drive, restore the data to your Vista system from the backups rather than the original drive.

    4) Add Win10 to the Vista system by making a dual-boot configuration (assuming you have enough room).
      My Computers


 

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