So... Manufacter says that the only solution is to unlock bitlocker and Microsoft says the same... And if i don't have the key, there is no solution!
Format Bitlocker encrypted disk without key
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Pedro Alves
96
Reputation points
I have a SSD disk bitlocker encrypted, but i don't know the key. I don't want to recover any data, i just want to format it, but it doesn't allow to format. Can anyone help?
Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | Devices and deployment | Configure application groups
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Andry Art 6 Reputation points2021-10-25T15:06:05.037+00:00 Or just pull out the SSD/HDD and format it with external drive/USB adapter. I did it like that with cmd DISKPART or any partition wipe tools.
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Jim Foster 6 Reputation points2022-09-06T17:23:11.233+00:00 Run the Windows 10 installation media from a USB. Download is free. You should be able to remove the partitions and reinstall a fresh basic Win10 on the disk. Then you should be able to format the disk properly.
Best,
Jim -
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michael gray 0 Reputation points2026-03-30T18:49:25.5366667+00:00 Thank you Jim Foster it worked perfectly
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Answer accepted by question author
Pedro Alves
96
Reputation points
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Danilo Liwag 5 Reputation points2023-09-06T00:04:22.17+00:00 Hi!
If you are formating an OS Bitlocker encrypted drive, follow the steps below
At the very start of the Installation Process, press Shift + F10, or Shift + Fn + F10 to open Command Prompt
Run this command and hit Enter:
diskpart
Run this command and hit Enter:
list disk
(Make note of the disk number you want to wipe and enter it into the next command - replace X)Run this command and hit Enter:
select disk X
Note: select the encrypted disk in the list and replace the X
Run this command and hit Enter:
clean
Run this command and hit Enter:
convert gpt
Then close Command Prompt, then restart the PC to begin the installation
Hope this helps.
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19 additional answers
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Trevor Harris 0 Reputation points2025-01-27T20:35:14.84+00:00 Create a bootable iso to linux
You can reimage to linux, delete the partition. Next reimage back to windows
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panagiotis katsanos 0 Reputation points2024-07-22T10:51:06.94+00:00 I had the same problem. They say it can easily be erased if you have a Linux machine or a Linux live CD but I didn't.
So I connected the drive with a SATA to USB adapter to my Wii U, it prompted me to format it and it's done!
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Mark Johnson 0 Reputation points2023-10-19T00:52:30.4333333+00:00 Is there an easy way to remove bitlocker? I used to be able to format bitlocker drives with a warning of backing up the bitlocker key (which I don't need), but now Dell has it locked on a new PC and I can't clone a disk to it. The cloning aborts with bitlocker or some error message and it aborts everything.
What steps do I need to remove/uninstall bitlocker?
FYI, this is my first time creating a full MS account. I usually just reset BIOS and install windows with a key, and that's it. Always with ahci. Does RAID o have anything to do with it? This dell came with a single SSD drive raid 0. It also came with an HDD 1tb drive with nothing on it.