Question save BitLocker encrypted drive data into an iso or file

[dfeweer]

Long story short, I have a Windows 10 laptop where BitLocker was turned on with out my knowledge (again, long story) and now I cannot get into the OS.

I do have a “recovery key id” but I guess I also need an additional “recovery key” which I cannot find right now.

This is an older laptop that has a 128GB SSD but if I had to guess, only about half of the disk space was used.

I have plenty of spare disk space on my other PCs so what I would like to do is save the BitLocker encrypted drive data into an iso or a file just in case one day the “recovery key” is found.

Is that even possible? If so, how would I go about doing that?

After I backup (if possible), I plan on re-imaging the laptop.

Thanks in advance.

Dan

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Without the recovery key you cannot do anything at all with that volume. If you think you will eventually locate the key then set the entire drive aside until you do so.

 

[Alabalcho]

You can (and should) make image of whole drive. Without the key, there's no file system recognizable, so you must keep whole 128mb image.

As to how to make the image: I am sure there're Windows utilities which can make "image copy", but I'd trust Linux' dd for that, or Clonezilla.