How to reset PC to Factory Setting without Bitlocker Key

[Chappster34]

I had some time to try this over the weekend.  Let me see if I am doing this correctly.  I made a windows 10 bootable image on my USB, now this was to load windows on the laptop, I'm thinking it maybe should have been just a bootable USB. Anyway, I put it in the laptop and started it, booted off the USB and it gave me two options, one was for basically a total wipe of the data and install windows. 10 which I selected.  The next step was to select the drive but for the life of me, I could not get it to show the hard drive.  It would give me an error that said it could not find a drive.  I did a shift F10 and opened a command prompt and when I went to the C: drive, it was basically the USB drive, I couldn't find any other drive.  Any suggestions?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

See if this works...

You have to install the Intel storage controller drivers that I zipped up and attached below for Windows to find the drive.

You need to do this for every PC that comes with an Intel Tiger Lake series processor or newer since Microsoft has not yet included these storage controller drivers in their installation media--why I do not know since these processors have been out for a few years now.

Unzip the file I attached and copy all of the files inside both folders in that file to a USB flash drive.

Have the flash drive and your W11 installation media plugged into USB ports.

Boot from the W11 installation flash drive.

When you get to the screen where no drives can be found, click on the Load driver option, browse to the flash drive with the storage controller drivers on it.

If you check the box, it will only include the compatible driver.

Click Next, and Windows should find the drive and install.

[Chappster34]

Thanks, that did help, I was able to see Drive 1 with 4 partitions and it will not let me install on either one.

Partition 1 says SYSTEM   -  Says  Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partiton formatted as NTFS.  The partition is an EFI system partition (ESP)  -  Options it looks like I can do to this drive is Delete and Format

2 MRS (Reserved) - The partition is Microsoft Reserved (MRS) partition  -  Only Option it looks like I can do to this drive is Delete.

3 Primary  -  Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space.  BitLocker Drive Encryption is enabled on the selected partition.  Suspend (also referred to as disable) BitLocker in the Control Panel, and then restart Installation.  -  Only Option it looks like I can do to this drive is Delete.

4 Recovery  -  Partition is a Microsoft Recovery Partition  -  Options it looks like I can do to this drive is Delete and Format

I'm not sure where to go after this, should I delete them all or just partition 3 since it's encrypted?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Now that you can see the drive, run the installation again, and when you are at the screen where you loaded the driver and can see the drive again, see if these steps work:

• 1. From inside Windows Setup, press Shift+F10 to open a command prompt window.
• 2. Type diskpart and press the enter key
• 3. Type list disk (look for your disk number, check the size of the disk)
• 4. Type select disk <disk number>. example: select disk0 (select the disk you want to format)
• 5. Type clean
• 6. Type convert gpt
• 7. Close the command prompt window.

Now see if Windows will install on the drive.

[Chappster34]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!  I'm in!  I shouldn't have any problem with BitLocker right?

I was able to create an account and was able to log back in!!  Great Job Helping Me!

Gene

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome, Gene:

Glad to have been of assistance.

If you have Bitlocker drive encryption turned off in Windows, it shouldn't be an issue.

If Bitlocker is turned on, the C:\ drive showing in 'This PC' will have an open padlock icon on the drive.

This link explains how to turn off Bitlocker if it is enabled.

How to Disable BitLocker Encryption on Windows 10 and 11 (howtogeek.com)

Cheers,

Paul

[Kwasi_]

Hello, Will this work if the Bitlocker recovery Key has been lost?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

It should.