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Did Your SP3 Come with BitLocker Fully Enabled?

Chris Stephen

New Member
Hello.

Yes. On my surface pro 3 i7 512gb Bitlocker was enabled by default. It doesn't appear to be hurting anything and my performance is still great so I'm going to leave it as is.
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
I'll go with the futzing caused the yellow triangle.

I think Frank's are all confused :) he says it was on but image says off... probably due to futzing also
I said that in my Surface 2 it was on by default in my SP3 it's off.
 

jnjroach

Administrator
Staff member
If you sign in with your Microsoft Account it will enable Bitlocker if you sign in using a local account you will need to enable it. Also if you you are using an Active Directory Account it would be enabled per Group Policies.
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
If you sign in with your Microsoft Account it will enable Bitlocker if you sign in using a local account you will need to enable it. Also if you you are using an Active Directory Account it would be enabled per Group Policies.
You see, that's what I find weird. I always log using my Microsoft account. So I think that at some point Bitlocker was disabled for a driver update or something. At this point I'm thinking about no enabling because I do not save stuff in my HDD. I save in my Onedrive or microSD. Of course that there still coockies and emails that may contain undesirable information. So I still thinking.
 

ctitanic

Well-Known Member
BTW, I enabled in my ex Surface RT microDrive and forgot about it and when I switched to Surface 2 I lost all the files in my microSD because I could not regain access to them.
 

phositadc

Member
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I bought an i5/4GB SP3 today. I didn't mess around with anything, and on the very first boot, I had a yellow exclamation point on the C: drive. Didn't really worry about it. But I was having other problems as well, such as my battery saying 0% and saying that it was not detected. Also, I ran Windows update to install the latest firmware, etc., and after I did so, literally every single reboot would say that "We are updating system files" or whatever and sit there for about 5-10 minutes before finally rebooting.

As a result of all of that, I decided to do a factory reset. And what do I discover? That I have to enter some like 50 digit PIN just to do a factory reset. Thankfully I was able to access the pin through my Microsoft account. But I had never enabled bit locker or anything encryption, so I was pretty shocked to see a PIN was required to do a reset.

In any event, I just did the reset and am about to set it up fresh. Suffice it to say, this has not been a smooth experience, and I'm a pretty big computer geek, so setting up new computers is not something that typically gives me any issues. Given the battery thing and various other issues, I think this device may be defective.

Anyways, just posted to weigh in on the bit locker question.

Edit: And for the record, even after doing the factory reset, I have the yellow exclamation point on my C: drive.
 
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GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
I think the yellow icon is there while the drive is in the process of being encrypted and as such would be normal until its done.

Yep there are a lot of updates... just hang in there.
 

malberttoo

Well-Known Member
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I bought an i5/4GB SP3 today. I didn't mess around with anything, and on the very first boot, I had a yellow exclamation point on the C: drive. Didn't really worry about it. But I was having other problems as well, such as my battery saying 0% and saying that it was not detected. Also, I ran Windows update to install the latest firmware, etc., and after I did so, literally every single reboot would say that "We are updating system files" or whatever and sit there for about 5-10 minutes before finally rebooting.

As a result of all of that, I decided to do a factory reset. And what do I discover? That I have to enter some like 50 digit PIN just to do a factory reset. Thankfully I was able to access the pin through my Microsoft account. But I had never enabled bit locker or anything encryption, so I was pretty shocked to see a PIN was required to do a reset.

In any event, I just did the reset and am about to set it up fresh. Suffice it to say, this has not been a smooth experience, and I'm a pretty big computer geek, so setting up new computers is not something that typically gives me any issues. Given the battery thing and various other issues, I think this device may be defective.

Anyways, just posted to weigh in on the bit locker question.

Edit: And for the record, even after doing the factory reset, I have the yellow exclamation point on my C: drive.

Are you logged in logged in with a local account like Jeff was mentioning above? Or a Microsoft account?
 

phositadc

Member
Are you logged in logged in with a local account like Jeff was mentioning above? Or a Microsoft account?

First time was a microsoft account. Had so many issues that, after I did the reset, I just did a local account. Yellow exclamation point on C: drive both times. Never seen it before on any computer I've owned. Strangely, if I go into BitLocker from control panel, it gives me the option to enable it, suggesting that it is disabled. However, if I goto Disk Management and look at the C: drive, it says Bitlocker is enabled.

Really odd. Whatever the deal, it seems that very few people have had the yellow exclamation point on the C: drive. Does anybody even know what it means?
 

malberttoo

Well-Known Member
First time was a microsoft account. Had so many issues that, after I did the reset, I just did a local account. Yellow exclamation point on C: drive both times. Never seen it before on any computer I've owned. Strangely, if I go into BitLocker from control panel, it gives me the option to enable it, suggesting that it is disabled. However, if I goto Disk Management and look at the C: drive, it says Bitlocker is enabled.

Really odd. Whatever the deal, it seems that very few people have had the yellow exclamation point on the C: drive. Does anybody even know what it means?

Ha, I did exactly the reverse. Took it out of the box and set up a local account. That was right when it first came out and firmware was coming out often and the thing was fairly buggy. I did a factory reset on it a month later and this time did a MS account, been just about perfect.

Bitlocker is enabled on mine, although I did not enable it.
 
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