What is BitLockerBitLocker is really a full disk encryption feature included with selected editions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. It is made to protect data by giving encryption for your volume.

What is BitLocker recovery key?A BitLocker recovery key, aka Microsoft recovery key or Windows recovery key, it is really a special key that has been automatically generated when creating BitLocker drive encryption on the particular drive.

BitLocker recovery key is employed to unlock your BitLocker encrypted drive once you your investment BitLocker password or BitLocker password isn't working.

Where and how to locate BitLocker recovery key?

Microsoft's BitLocker drive encryption always forces you to save a BitLocker recovery key once you set it up. You may have stored it online with a Microsoft account, Http://windows.microsoft.com/recoverykeyfaq saved it to a USB drive, saved it to a report or printed that recovery key, etc., so you can find the recovery type in these ways:

Option 3: Get the BitLocker recovery type in a txt file

BitLocker recovery key may be saved as a txt file in your computer. If you have not deleted it, search BitLocker Recovery Key.txt in your computer.

Option 4: Get the BitLocker recovery type in a documentIn the event that you printed BitLocker recovery key by "Microsoft Print to PDF", look for pdf file on your computer.

Option 5: Get the BitLocker recovery type in Active DirectoryIf you are a domain user, the BitLocker recovery key may be saved to Active Directory (AD), contact your administrator to get it.

BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer can locate and view BitLocker recovery key that is stored in Active Directory (AD).

Tutorial to see BitLocker recovery type in Active Directory:

In Active Directory Users and Computers, locate and then click the container in which the computer is located. Like, click the Computers container.

Right-click the computer object, and then click Properties.

In the ComputerName Properties dialog box, click the BitLocker Recovery tab to see the BitLocker recovery keys that are related to the particular computer.

Option 6: In your Azure Active Directory accountFor work PCs where you register by having an Azure Active Directory account, see the device info for the Microsoft Azure account and obtain the recovery key.

Cannot find BitLocker recovery key, what to do?If you cannot get BitLocker recovery key with the above methods, read our article: How to unlock BitLocker encrypted drive without password and recovery key.