Lab file · Honest limits · MHD-2025-6330
My Fingerprint No Longer Lets Me In.
Her thumb had opened the ProBook since the day it arrived. Then firmware took the option away — there's no thumb icon on the login screen now
— leaving a PIN set in the first hour and never used since: I typed it once and the reader took over
. Four wrong attempts locked the screen. Payroll week, four Wokingham clients waiting, and eight years of accounts that belong to other people
.
Much the same fault? Call us.
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In everyday terms.
The difference between the two decides everything, and most people do not know there is one. A Windows sign-in screen guards an account. It has no hold over the storage: take the module out, read it on other hardware, and the screen you could not get past was never standing between you and the sectors. Encryption is the opposite arrangement. BitLocker rewrites the volume, and in the absence of the key, or of the recovery password that stands in for it, whatever comes off the flash reads as noise to anybody at all, this bench included. One case is an afternoon's work and the other cannot be done. Establishing which costs nothing, and we do it before anything else.
What the bench used here.
How a job is handled →| Tool | Why we used it | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Atola Insight Forensic | Took the write-blocked copy of the NVMe before keys were even discussed | Several drives imaged at once, every write blocked and every step logged for the file |
| PC-3000 SSD | Confirmed the module was electrically sound, so no defect lay hidden behind the lock | Addresses the flash controller itself, below the level any operating system reports |
| UFS Explorer Professional Recovery | Mounted the unencrypted volume straight away; the other waited for the key to surface | Reads the awkward filesystems others stumble over: APFS, ReFS, XFS, ZFS, Btrfs |
The lab work.
The copy comes before any question of locks
Before anything else the NVMe was lifted out of the chassis and imaged behind a hardware write blocker. The precaution earns its keep twice over on work of this kind. Should ownership of the machine, or our handling of it, ever be questioned, the original can be shown untouched. And where no one asks, nothing has been lost by taking care.
Both headers examined before any figure is quoted
A minute of reading headers settled the question. The system volume was plain NTFS, so the sign-in that had held her off for a week counted for nothing against a direct read. The second volume, the one carrying the client ledgers, showed a BitLocker signature; she had enabled it years earlier while working through a checklist from her professional body, then forgotten it. Both halves were priced in the written quote.
Look for the paperwork before writing it off
BitLocker will tell you which key it is asking for. The identifier was read out to her over the phone. She was sure no key had ever been issued, then recalled Windows pressing her to print a sheet whose purpose escaped her. It was filed in the ring binder behind her practising certificate. The volume opened at the first attempt. Without that sheet this half of the job could go no further, and we would have said so.
How the job closed.
Both volumes were returned. The system side read as though nothing had barred the way; the client side gave way to a sheet printed years before and never once consulted. Payroll went out two days late, on fresh media. The recovery key now lives in three separate places, though not on the laptop.
More of the jobs we've closed.
More from Honest limits.
Does any of that match your case?
Nothing needs deciding until the diagnosis is back: switch the device off, send it in, and let the findings settle it.