Encryption changes recovery from 'can we read the data' to 'can we unlock it after we read it.' The good news: a damaged encrypted drive is often recoverable. The hard rule: without your key or password, encrypted data stays encrypted — for us and for anyone else.
BitLocker and FileVault are real, properly implemented encryption. There is no master key, no backdoor, and no lab that can unlock your data without credentials. If a recovery company tells you otherwise, walk away. What we can do is recover the encrypted data itself — which is where most of the risk sits — and then decrypt it with your password or recovery key. Bring the 48-digit BitLocker key, the FileVault recovery key, or your login password to intake.
Most people have the key without knowing it. For personal machines, it is stored at account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey under your Microsoft account. Work machines keep it in the company Azure AD or Active Directory. It may also be on a USB stick, a printed sheet, or in a text file from when BitLocker was first enabled. We will help you locate it during the $50 evaluation — often the key search is the whole job.
A clicking or failing encrypted drive is handled exactly like any failing drive: controlled, sector-level imaging, head skipping on weak areas, and zero writes to the original. The difference comes after — the recovered image is then mounted and unlocked with your credentials. Damaged volume headers and partition tables on encrypted media can often be repaired from backup headers that BitLocker and FileVault store elsewhere on the disk.
Some drives encrypt silently at the controller — WD My Passport and My Book are the common examples. The bare disk, removed from its enclosure, reads as unformatted even on a healthy drive. Recovery requires the original bridge board or a compatible donor carrying the drive's encryption state. Bring the enclosure and cable with the drive; they are part of the case.
Same day, $50: the physical condition of the drive, whether the encrypted volume structure is intact, whether your key or password decrypts a test read, and a fixed quote for the full recovery. You approve before any recovery work begins. No recovery fee if no usable data is recovered, and your original media comes back to you at the end.
No. Without the 48-digit key, password, or authorized account access, BitLocker data cannot be decrypted — by us or anyone else.
Sign in at account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey with the Microsoft account tied to the PC. Work machines: ask your IT admin to check Azure AD.
Possibly. We image the drive as-is — encryption intact — and decrypt after recovery with your credentials. Stop powering it on until the evaluation.
Not if you have the login password or the FileVault recovery key. Without either, the data cannot be unlocked.
A flat $50 same-day evaluation. Pricing after that depends on the physical condition, not the encryption — you get a fixed quote before work begins.
Fill out the form below and our Kingwood & Atascocita data recovery specialist will contact you within the hour.