Windows bitlocker issue

[the-norseman]

Hi All,

Missus has a 8 year old Dell XPS which has had a fault for the last 5 years which is a common issue that cant be repaired apparently. The laptop 9 times out of 10 wont boot, you press power, the screen lights up but stays black and thats all it does, on the 10th attempt it boots. Loads of things have been tried, fair few people on reddit etc have had the same issues seems its a model issue.

Now all of a sudden on every boot its asking for her Windows Bitlocker code, she logs into MS account and we enter the code and it boots, on next reboot same again.

Sign of failing SSD or could it be cmos batter or something?

Were a Android/Linux household but she has the Windows laptop, she wants a new one for her birthday (March) tried to convince her a Macbook Air is the way forwards but shes having none of it.

[eeLee]

Backup the data, it sound like there are issues with the drive.

Option 1 which might fix it - nuke and pave then lay data back on
Option 2 is replace and migrated SSD
Option 3....the force is strongly against that

[edeath]

Is there any particularaly sensitive data on there? You could just turn Bitlocker off.

Alternatively before nuking turn it off. Reboot and then turn it back on again.

[Mr Pointy]

Since it seems she is using Bitlocker have you backed up the encryption keys in case something goes wrong?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-u...

[the-norseman]

The encryption keys are stored in her MS login but tbh she doesn't need it turned on! so think I will turn it off.

I have my Linux drives encrypted for the sake of it but in truth I keep very little on them.

[the-norseman]

I've disabled Bitlocker now, just need to try fix the boot issue now.

[eeLee]

backed up data too?
these symptoms suggest immenent corruption or death of the drive.

[the-norseman]

I've told her to move anything she needs to the cloud.

[eeLee]

you might also find the turning off of Bitlocker and rewriting the drive also helps with the reliability. Because of how the data is absolutely crammed into the space, rewriting can be of benefit.....