Any IT experts in? Laptop reset help required

Can you not just boot from a Windows* usb stick and do a fresh install?

*insert operating system of choice

There is no way that they should be letting you use a PC with their operating system and applications on it.

Do you want to run Windows on it or would some flavour of Linux be ok? If Windows you will need a license.

There are various videos on youtube which show how to re-partition a drive with Bitlocker on it.

For example,

As this is a tech question I thought I'd use another bit of tech - Copilot Ai!

Good afternoon! It sounds like you have a bit of a tech puzzle on your hands. Here are a few steps you can try to make your Dell Latitude laptop usable:

1. BitLocker Recovery: Since you have the BitLocker recovery key, you can use it to unlock the drive. However, turning off BitLocker without admin access can be tricky. You might need to boot into the BIOS and disable BitLocker from there. Check out this guide for detailed instructions on how to enable or disable BitLocker.
2. Admin Password Reset: If you don't have the admin username and password, you can try resetting the BIOS password. One method involves using a website that generates a password based on your system number. Here's a video tutorial that walks you through the process.
3. Factory Reset: If you're not worried about losing any data on the laptop, you can perform a factory reset. This will remove all existing data and settings, including the admin password. You can find instructions on how to do this here .
4. Reinstall Windows: Another option is to reinstall Windows. This will give you a fresh start and remove any existing restrictions. You can create a bootable USB drive with the Windows installation media and follow the prompts to reinstall the operating system. Here's a guide on how to do this.

Hopefully, one of these methods will help you get your laptop up and running. If you run into any issues or need further assistance, feel free to ask!

Thanks Simon, I thought this might be possible as a friend said to do this. However when we tried, it doesn't work - it states the Bitlocker needs to be suspended, but we can't do that because that requires the admin username and password.

Maybe a decent local IT repair place could help?

That^^^, download the Win 10 or 11 ISO free from Microsoft, to a USB dogle, and then boot from that to reinstall windows. You might be lucky and the device will have licence key associated to the BIOS already, other wise you can just ignore the activation warning messages.

EDIT: A rebuild should definitely work. Did you choose a fresh intall or the option to keep your files.. you need to do a fresh install.

EDIT 2: Go into the BIOS and reset the secure boot option.

Thanks Cletus, I'll watch the video and see if this can help.

CaptainTomo - the links don't seem to work for me.

For further info - I have no issue with running Windows, and happy to pay for whatever a basic license is. I'm not too hot on IT, and I've always used Windows so happy to stick with that.

Links now work - thanks CaptinTomo - I'll check those out.

Z1ppy - no ideal why it won't, I'm not too good at IT stuff. It was a fresh install, there isn't anything on the laptop I would want or need to keep anyway.

Cheers

Where are you?

This stuff is increasingly becoming a pain in the bollocks. If you're local / can get it to me I'll look at it for you in exchange for a charity donation / STW subscription.

I had a laptop gifted to me a few months back. It was still enrolled with MS Entra. That was a nightmare to unpick without access to the backend, it took me days.

Thanks for the offer Cougar2, I'm just west of Edinburgh, likely miles away, but I appreciate your offer 🙂

It'll likely need a fresh install of windows via a USB stick. Pretty easy to do. Here is the link to Microsoft to download Win11 installation tool. Follow the steps to load it onto your USB.

Then follow these steps found on this forum post my User Paloma - Factory Reset a Computer With Bitlocker (No Recovery Key) - Microsoft Community

Worth a try as you got nothing to lose. If you run into problems just come back here for more ideas.

Having had a read of the above links I'm afraid this is all beyond me. If anyone knows a good IT repair guy west of Edinburgh please let me know

Cheers!

Okay, further to the above, I get as far as selecting the drive to install but I can't - I get the following message:

'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, then restart the installation.'

But of course I can't suspend/disable as this requires the admin username and password.

Time to hire an expert...

One laptop I had, needed the M2 drive taking out due to bitlocker. Popped it in a spare slot on a desktop machine and re-formatted it. This removed everything. Then re-installed windows.

Does it not even allow you to open the command panel to enter in those commands to force a drive format? When you get onto the page where it wants you to select an install location press shift + F10 and then follow that link I shared earlier to clean and then partition the drive. I'm confident that will work.

When you're selecting the Windows install location, does it not give you any "advanced options"?

If you can access that then you just need to blitz all existing partitions and then let the install process re-create them.

you need to disconnect the bios battery to nuke it properly. That will involve unscrewing various bits..maybe not worth the effort if it's a cheap laptop.

Can you not just whack a new hard drive in it, or is bitlocker sat in the bios on the mother board?

Can you not just whack a new hard drive in it, or is bitlocker sat in the bios on the mother board?

If the BIOS is locked then you need to remove the bios battery to do a hard reset. it will be a standard cr2032 button battery stuck or soldered to the main board somewhere.

You might also lunch the hard drive in the process, if it's encrypted, so have a new drive on hand for a fresh install, too.

*Also back up your data before doing the nessesary.*

If it's just Bitlocker, as stumpy01 says, switch the harddrive out for a clean one (£40odd) and reinstall. You'll be able to find a video on youtube on how to replace the drive, or if it's a Dell, they'll have the instructions doc on their support site.

‘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, then restart the installation.’

Delete the encrypted partition, then select the resulting free space for installation?

Quick update

Shift + F10 doesn't work, it unfortunately doesn't do anything.
I don't know if BitLocker is on the BIOS or Motherboard, this is beyond my IT knowledge or skill.
Laptop is a Lattitude 5530
New hard drive and removing the battery may be the way forward for me, although I might see if I can find a local IT expert to do this.
There is nothing on it to backup. Happy to completely wipe it if that is what is required. However I am a little concerned I may mess it up and render it completely useless...

Cheers!

I can't remember if the normal bit of the windows installer will let you erase the partitions if bitlocker is installed, but you can certainly erase them with diskpart which you can access by going to recovery -> command line

edit- a video showing the process

Another combination to try.

shift + fn + f10

or

win + r

Or just access command prompt via the video above. You really shouldn't need a new drive.

Thanks Multi21, the issue I have here is that I don't get the option to select 'advanced options' and then select 'command prompt'

Looks like all of these are disabled somehow

How strange.  My next step would be to take out the SSD, attach it to my desktop and format it from there before replacing. If you can be bothered...

Is there no option to delete the partition?

As per the above video @0:33 seconds - there is a red cross next to the text "Delete" (below the list box showing available drives & partitions).

Another combination to try.

shift + fn + f10

Aha! So this works 🙂

I'm watching the video, I have 3 disks (Disk 0 - 28GB, Disk 1 - 7389GB & Disk 2 - 238GB)

Now the 'C drive' appears to be in 'Disk 1', and it has 28GB assigned to it. So do I simply instruct it to clean/format that? and then I can hopefully select it when I try to install from the USB?

Cheers!

Is there no option to delete the partition?

As per the above video @0:33 seconds – there is a red cross next to the text “Delete” (below the list box showing available drives & partitions).

If I delete it then how do I then select it to install? This is probably a stupid question but I'll ask anyway...

Woo getting somewhere.

Disk 0 will be the USB stick I presume - leave that alone. Looks like you have 2 drives inside the laptop. I'd clean both to be thorough.

I do think that video over complicated the steps though. You should only need to do the clean command as outlined in this link i sent earlier. Paloma's post.

Factory Reset a Computer With Bitlocker (No Recovery Key) - Microsoft Community

Don't select disk 0 though, select 1 - do the steps. Then start again and select 2.

Once you do that, you just close the command window and then follow the steps to partition a drive. Then it should let you install to that!

Are you sure you don't mean disk 0 with partitions 1, 2 & 3?

The USB drive won't be displayed in that list and I'd be surprised if the laptop had more than 1 disk.

If you're happy to trash the contents then delete each partition in turn which will then leave just one big partition. Select that as the install location and windows will do the rest.

Are you sure you don’t mean disk 0 with partitions 1, 2 & 3?

This.

"disk" 0 I assume is the boot partition, though it seems large. 1 is the "C drive" and 2 the recovery partition.

Don't bother with formatting, that will only complicate matters. Just erase everything, the Windows installer will then create what it needs.

Okay, I think I’m heading in the right direction… I can’t seem to upload a photo so have typed below what I am seeing right now:

Administrator: X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe - diskpart

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19041.2965]

(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

X: \Sources>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: MINNINPC

DISKPART> list disk

DISKPART> select disk 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list volume

DISKPART>

Apologies for the poor formatting

Ah I see you are using diskpart which will display USB drives.

It might be easier to try deleting the partitions via the windows installer as I mentioned above.

If you want to try diskpart then after the command "select disk 2", type the command "list partition" (disk 2 looks to be the actual disk).

Then I think you need to type

Select partition [number]

Delete partition

And repeat for all partitions.

Select disk 1 and clean. Do the same for 2..just like in that link. No need to go in deeper and select individual partitions as that overcomplicates matters.

Type diskpart and press Enter

Type list disk and press Enter

Find the disk number for the drive you want to clean (1)

Type select disk 1 and press Enter

Type clean and press Enter

Type exit to leave DiskPart

Repeat for the second disk 2

Latest update - I followed the instructions and have refreshed the list. Now I am getting the following message:

Drive 2 Partition 1 (this is the only drive showing now)
"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks."

Is this rescuable?

Yes we are getting close.

Give this a bash

Aha! This appears to be working 🙂

After refreshing I could then select 'unallocated space' and it now seems to be installing! I shall keep you posted...

Cheers!!

That method never fails in my experience when you want a fresh start. Glad to be of help. You should be good now.

I do wish I had paid more attention to IT when I was younger... Massive thanks!

It's definitely getting there, it has just opened to the familiar Windows starting point. But it has lost a driver for network.

"Windows could not find a driver for your network adapter" - where is best to find and then install this? I'm guessing I could do it from another laptop, save to a USB and install from that?

Weird. Can you connect to your network with a cable as that should work to get going. Otherwise it's a case of going to the website of your WiFi card and finding the correct driver and popping it on a usb I guess.

I found the dell drivers and selected the Intel WiFi one - and now it works! Brilliant!

MASSIVE thanks for all your help! To everyone who contributed, thank you!

Great to see STW is still an awesome place to find all sorts of advice and help (and everything else too hah!)

Indeed try a cable first, that should sort it.

But to locate the correct drivers and since it's a Dell, hop over to Dell Support and punch in the service tag and download the setup utility from there.

Thanks Glenn, all seems to be working now, well it's running anyway, lots of updates etc on the go so I'll leave it be for a few hours and hopefully all is well
Cheers!

Nice one, glad it's working now 🙂

Well, after a fair old amount of updates here I am up and running and posting using the laptop. So far all is well 🙂

What's the recommended go to internet browser and antivirus these days?

Cheers!

🙂

Chrome for me and it's updated frequently.

Windows 10 anti-virus is more than sufficient, no need for anything else imo.

Very well done, that's not easy.

I run multiple browsers. Check out Brave.

You don't need AV beyond what you already have, MS Defender.

Thanks Cougar2, it was good to be able to do it, been a long time since I had any involvement in computers and things have changed quite a bit.

Another one for Brave. Recently started using it on my old iMac running Linux and it's been super snappy.

I knew we'd get there in the end with no need for new drives or sending it to a shop!

Yeah, Brave is good.  Although my default is Chrome, Brave is great for YT and also use it on my Android phone.

I wonder idly, what's the going rate in a "shop" these days?

I had my tumble dryer fixed a couple of months back, the drum bearing had eaten itself. (I'm quite practical, but I have The Fear of anything that's held together with massive springs and don't want to end up like Phineas Gage.) It cost me £60 and I thought I'd got a good deal. If I were to fix someone's laptop I'd balk at asking for that sort of money and it's (arguably) a far more complex skillset.

What would other readers consider to be good value for a laptop repair / rebuild?

Back when I worked in a shop many years ago it was more than £60 to do a full rebuild.

Now I would be suprised if you get much change out of £150.

Combination of a more complex skillset and something that even with the skillset can take a bit of time.

I thought us tech people were recommending people NOT use Brave due to the CEO being a homophobic CV19 denier 🙁