Clean Slate after lost BitLocker Key

[Five Seven Five]

I've been asked to help out a coworker whose PC started prompting for a BitLocker key on startup, but his key is long lost & forgotten. He is okay with wiping the PC to a factory reset, but that doesn't seem to be an option. While I can follow the options to select Troubleshoot>Reset this PC>Remove everything, this simply shows "Getting things ready" for a few seconds before returning to the recovery screen and does not actually perform the reset - is that option meant to work, or is it the BitLocker blocking it?

Reformatting the drive would be fine, but my question then comes to the Windows license - with no activation key, does this force the purchase of a brand new Windows license? Is there any other method for a factory reset that could do a clean OS install without requiring another license?

 

[USAFRet]

Where did the original Win 10 come from?
If just a reinstall, licensing should not be an issue.

You WILL have to boot up from a Win 10 USB or DVD, delete all the existing partitions, and start with a fully blank drive.
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

 

[Barty1884]

Getting around BitLocker encryption is not something you'll find assistance with here.

As for the licensing aspect, if Windows 10, you won't need a new key (assuming it's currently activated).
Clean installing, with the same version of Windows 10 (Home, Pro etc) and skipping when prompted for a key, will activate once back online.

 

[Five Seven Five]

Where did the original Win 10 come from?
If just a reinstall, licensing should not be an issue.

You WILL have to boot up from a Win 10 USB or DVD, delete all the existing partitions, and start with a fully blank drive.
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

I assume it was preinstalled - if there was any installation media provided at time of purchase it is no longer available.

 

[Five Seven Five]

Getting around BitLocker encryption is not something you'll find assistance with here.

As for the licensing aspect, if Windows 10, you won't need a new key (assuming it's currently activated).
Clean installing, with the same version of Windows 10 (Home, Pro etc) and skipping when prompted for a key, will activate once back online.

There's no desire to bypass the BitLocker or access any files, just to get an OS back on the machine so the hardware isn't a total loss. I am thinking the best option is to create an installation USB from another Win10 PC (the device to be restored has no optical drive) and take it from there.

 

[Barty1884]

No problem, I was just clarifying.

You can create your own installation media with an 8GB USB:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

 

[USAFRet]

Where did the original Win 10 come from?
If just a reinstall, licensing should not be an issue.

You WILL have to boot up from a Win 10 USB or DVD, delete all the existing partitions, and start with a fully blank drive.
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10

I assume it was preinstalled - if there was any installation media provided at time of purchase it is no longer available.

A full reinstall on that same hardware should pose no licensing problems.
Make your own Win 10 USB here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10