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when turning on bitlocker for a device, the following recovery key document is created:

BitLocker Drive Encryption recovery key

To verify that this is the correct recovery key, compare the start of the following identifier with the identifier value displayed on your PC. Identifier:

8dd91aa1-55a3-4A41-8B0D-4531B127A2F0

If the above identifier matches the one displayed by your PC, then use the following key to unlock your drive. Recovery Key:

654321-987654-951846-7194568-654321-987654-951846-7194568

If the above identifier doesn't match the one displayed by your PC, then this isn't the right key to unlock your drive.

Try another recovery key, or refer to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=260589 for additional assistance.

What identifier is meant here?

joh
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    Windows 8.1 (that might matter). Since different drives result in different identifiers, i guess it is a drive identifier. "Each key package will work only for a drive that has the corresponding drive identifier." from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj647767.aspx – joh May 19 '16 at 17:04

2 Answers2

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The identifier of the drive is generated when the drive is encrypted. This allows you, the end user, to identify which recovery key goes to which encrypted drive.

The reason the message says to "compare the start of the following identifier with the identifier value displayed on your PC." is because of how Bitlocker Recovery itself works.

enter image description here

Notice the Recovery Key Identifier part of the screenshot.

One would normally save the recovery key with the identifier in the filename like so.

enter image description here enter image description here

How to Unlock a Drive using BitLocker Recovery in Windows 8 and 8.1

Ramhound
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    I burrowed the images, I no longer have a Windows 8.1 virtual machine at my disposal, not that it matters I don't use Bitlocker on my system drive. – Ramhound May 19 '16 at 17:19
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    also to add, if you run Manage-bde -protectors -get c: (or whatever drive letter you need) in an elevated shell you can retrieve both the ID and the recovery code which is useful to know beforehand whether you actually have the correct recov file. – My1 Jul 22 '21 at 12:52
  • @My1 thanks, this is what I was looking for – olfek Aug 26 '22 at 12:04
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From a command line ran as an administrator, run the following command:

manage-bde -protectors -get <drive letter>

Example:

manage-bde -protectors -get C:

Look for Numerical password ID:

Rohit Gupta
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