How to Disable BitLocker Encryption (and the BitLocker Service) in Windows 10 | Data Recovery Tips

BitLocker in Windows 10

While BitLocker is not an essential tool for most users, it's a very powerful one to protect your data with a secret password. It can add an extra layer of security to your devices – like internal hard drive partitions, volumes, external HDDs, and any removable storage drives. Enabling BitLocker protection is crucial when you're on a company or workplace computer that's connected to a public network! However, some people might find it unnecessary when using a personal PC at home for storing data. So, can you turn off BitLocker once it's enabled in Windows 10?

(Image: BitLocker Windows 10)

Note: BitLocker is not available in Windows 10 Home. This is a device encryption feature that's built into Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education.

Note: BitLocker is designed to encrypt entire volumes to protect data. If you want to encrypt specific files or folders on your computer, you should look for a file encryption program.

How to Disable BitLocker Encryption on a Single Partition (6 Ways)

You can enable or disable BitLocker on a drive in several places in Windows 10, including:

1. Control Panel 2. Settings 3. Command Prompt 4. PowerShell 5. Group Policy Editor 6. Windows Services

Method 1: Turn Off BitLocker through the Windows 10 Control Panel

Step 1: In Windows 10, the quickest way to open the Control Panel is by pressing Windows key + R on your keyboard, typing control or control panel in the Run dialog box, and then clicking OK.

Step 2. Click on BitLocker Drive Encryption to open a new window.

Step 3: You'll see all drive partitions. Find the target partition that shows (X: BitLocker Encrypted) and expand the drop-down arrow area, then click Turn Off BitLocker.

Method 2: Turn Off BitLocker through Windows 10 Settings

Step 1. Press Windows + I to open the Settings window in Windows 10.

Step 2. Click on the System option.

Step 3: Click “About” in the lower left corner, and then choose “BitLocker Settings” on the right.

This will open the same "BitLocker Drive Encryption" window, so follow the same steps from #Method 1 to select the encrypted drive you want to unlock.

Method 3: Disable BitLocker via the Windows 10 Command Prompt

In any case, the manual solutions available in the Windows 10 Control Panel and Settings can also help you suspend BitLocker protection on your hard drive. Users accustomed to troubleshooting via the Windows Command Prompt also have a guide at their disposal.

Step 1: Press Windows+X, and then click Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.

Step 2. Type the following command and press Enter. Replace X: with the correct drive letter for your encrypted drive.

Method 4: Turn Off BitLocker with Windows 10 PowerShell

This is another way to remove BitLocker protection from a drive through command prompt. However, if you're not comfortable with commands, the first two methods would be more suitable for you.

Step 1: In the Windows search box (press Windows+S), type “powershell.” Right-click the result and select “Run as administrator.”

Step 2. Type the command below and press Enter. Replace X with the letter of the drive that has BitLocker encryption. Keep the quotes.

Step 3. (Optional) If you want to turn off BitLocker on multiple drives on the computer, you will need to run separate command prompts for each drive:

Method 5: Disable BitLocker using the Local Group Policy Editor on Windows 10

While you can manage BitLocker drive encryption with the Local Group Policy Editor, it's the most complicated method from the five we're showing you. Still, we feel compelled to offer all possible solutions, including this last one.

Step 1: Type "Group Policy" (group policy) into the Windows search bar (Windows + S). If that doesn't work, you can also open it via the Run prompt, which is probably the quickest way: Windows + R, then type gpedit.msc into the Run prompt and hit Enter.

Step 2. Once the Local Group Policy Editor is up, carefully follow this path to disable BitLocker:

< li >< em > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption > Fixed Data Drives < li >< em > Enable the option Deny write access to non-BitLocker-protected fixed drives, and then double-click it.

Next, click “Not Configured” or “Disabled”. Either option will turn off BitLocker protection for the drive. Click “Apply” and then “OK” to save your changes.

Method 6: Turn Off BitLocker via Windows Services

The Services app manages all services in Windows, including the BitLocker service. Here's how to disable the BitLocker service permanently from the Services window.

Step 1: Press Windows + R, type services.msc in the Run box, and hit Enter.

Step 2. Under the Name tab, locate and double-click the BitLocker Drive Encryption Service entry.

Step 3: Select Disabled from the Startup type drop-down, and then click Apply and OK to save your changes.

Tip #1: How to Recover Data from a BitLocker Encrypted Hard Drive

While BitLocker can double the protection of data on your hard drive, it cannot defend against external damage that can delete or corrupt encrypted data! A password-protected hard drive is also vulnerable to viruses or common hard drive issues like bad sectors, RAW file system, or unrecognizable by computers. Most importantly, data must be protected against all foreseeable disasters!

When issues happen to a BitLocker encrypted hard drive, do we have any data recovery wizard tool to resort to? Yes, the Data Recovery Wizard does help. It fully supports the recovery of encrypted data from BitLocker protected hard drives, external HDDs and USB flash drives.

Step 1. Select the encrypted drive to scan

Launch the Data Recovery Wizard, and you'll see the BitLocker-encrypted drive listed there.

Select the BitLocker drive to scan:

Click on the encrypted partition, and a window will pop up asking for the password to unlock it. After typing in the password, click on the “Scan” button to start searching for lost files.

Note: If you have forgotten your key, you can try to use the Auto Decryption feature to help decrypt the drive. However, this might not work. If it fails, the program will be unable to scan the drive.

Step 2: Select and preview the scanned files

The software will start a quick scan for deleted files and perform an advanced scan to look for more lost files. Once the process is finished, you can apply the “Filter” feature or click on the “Search File or Folder” button to locate the lost file in no time.

Step 3. Recover Lost Files from BitLocker Encrypted Hard Drive

After previewing the files, you can click on the “Recover” button to retrieve the deleted or lost files from the BitLocker encrypted partition.

Additional Tip #2: How to Manage BitLocker Partition with Resizing/Moving

Sometimes, you may need a larger BitLocker drive partition to store large multimedia files, and the Partition Master tool can help with this task by adding available space from other partitions to the BitLocker partition!

Step 1: Click on “Manage BitLocker”. Choose the BitLocker encrypted partition and click on “Unlock”. Input your password to unlock BitLocker.

Right click on the BitLocker partition and choose “Resize/Move” option.

Step 3: Shrink or expand BitLocker by dragging the mouse to the unallocated space

Step 4: Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to begin partitioning or resizing the BitLocker drive.