Bitlocker on motherboard replacement

Question

I am using Dell Latitude E5410 with Windows 7. It has a single hard disk with two drives, both encrypted with Bitlocker (not sure if they use the same or different keys). I have a key for the C Drive available.

My laptop's motherboard has failed, and needs a replacement. But I have huge data in the other drive for which I do not have the Bitlocker key.

I do know the passkey I was using before the system boots, but a technician said that if the motherboard is replaced, the old password will not work and I would not be able to recover the drive for which I do not have the Bitlocker key.

Any help is really appreciated.

Answer 1

BitLocker can also be used without a TPM. To use BitLocker on a computer without a TPM, you must change the default behavior of the BitLocker setup wizard by using Group Policy, or configure BitLocker by using a script. When BitLocker is used without a TPM, the required encryption keys are stored on a USB flash drive that must be presented to unlock the data stored on a volume.

To use BitLocker to protect an operating system drive on a computer without a TPM, the following option is available:

Startup key only. All of the required encryption key information is stored on a USB flash drive. The user must insert the USB flash drive into the computer during startup. The key stored on the USB flash drive unlocks the computer. When the computer does not have a TPM, all of the information required to read the encrypted drive is included in the startup key. Using a TPM is recommended because it helps protect against attacks made against the computer's critical startup process.

If you used TPM, your data is lost. If you didn't then you can recover your data.

If your old motherboard is available then you can decrypt the drive and then re-encrypt it afterwards.

reference: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/learn-more-about-bitlocker-drive-encryption

Answer 2

The Bitlocker encryption and its key are hardware-independent. As Ramhound says his comment, it may be difficult to successfully boot your old OS after a motherboard replacement for reasons unrelated to the encrypted drive.

I suggest to connect the drive(s) to a working machine and use their Bitlocker installation to access them with the usual passkey.

From the comments:

I am afraid Bitlocker is hardware dependent as it uses a TPM to make it work. TPM is nothing but a chip in the mother board that stores the bit locker encryption keys and map the same to the pass key that you provide to the system when logging in. So when the mother board is replaced you also change the TPM, that mean you loose bit locker key for all your drives. – Soum