If I wipe my C drive, can I still unlock my other bitlocker encrypted hard drives?

[newbjumper]

Hello,

This may be a stupid question, but if I wipe my boot drive (to clean up and reinstall what I actually need) can I still open my other bitlocker encrypted hard drives? My reasoning is that the bitlocker passwords are stored on the C drive, not on the individual hard drives. This and this seem to support my answer, but I just want to be sure.

If I am right, how can I wipe my drive and still keep the keys?

 

[USAFRet]

Hello,

This may be a stupid question, but if I wipe my boot drive (to clean up and reinstall what I actually need) can I still open my other bitlocker encrypted hard drives? My reasoning is that the bitlocker passwords are stored on the C drive, not on the individual hard drives. This and this seem to support my answer, but I just want to be sure.

If I am right, how can I wipe my drive and still keep the keys?

You really, really, really need to back up that encrypted data to elsewhere first.
(and always)

 

[4745454b]

Before you wipe, can you turn off bitlocker? Or back the key up somehow? (Sorry, don't use that program.) There should be a way to prevent data loss with such a popular program.

 

[antishill]

You are asking for trouble wiping and losing your bitlocker password. If anything you are guaranteeing that you won't be able to access the encrypted data.

 

[USAFRet]

At the very least, you need to set up a BitLocker Recovery key.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17133/windows-8-bitlocker-recovery-keys-frequently-asked-questions

But I'd also copy ALL that data, unencrypted, off to an offline drive during this process.

 

[newbjumper]

Before you wipe, can you turn off bitlocker? Or back the key up somehow? (Sorry, don't use that program.) There should be a way to prevent data loss with such a popular program.

Since the only other option is to back up my stuff just in case, I guess my best option is to turn off bitlocker. I just don't want to wait a couple of days because during that time I can't really use my computer since they will all be pinned at 100% and have a high response time. Thanks for your help and everybody else's help!