Dual Boot Linux on Windows with BitLocker Enabled

WARNING: IN ANY CASE DON'T FORMAT YOUR DRIVE!!!!

Dual-Boot Windows & Linux with BitLocker Enabled drives

Most modern systems have BitLocker Protection enabled on the hard drives in the system which makes them encrypted in order to prevent unauthorized access in case you lose the disks. With BitLocker enabled, Windows installation will boot only if your BIOS is set to 'Windows Boot Manager' ONLY. On the other hand, installing a Linux OS requires to change the boot loader to GRUB. However, booting Windows from GRUB is "untrusted" with BitLocker and the computer will ask you for the BitLocker Recovery Key. Don't Panic!

The only boot loader that windows trust is the "Windows Boot Manager".

ATTENTION: If you have BitLocker protection enabled, backup the Recovery Key IMMEDIATELY and store it to another safe location (secondary drive, USB thumb drive, Cloud Drive, Email Attachment etc). Anything other than your encrypted drives.

For a successful installation of Linux alongside Windows with BitLocker enabled follow this steps:

1. Sign in to Windows
2. Backup BitLocker Recovery Key (If you skip this step you risk losing all data within the encrypted drives) (steps here)
3. Go to Disk Management and partition your drive as you want (excluding the Windows Partition)
4. Reboot and install Linux as usual by booting from a USB drive (either with one time boot disk option or by changing BIOS boot order).
5. After finish Linux installation and configuration go to BIOS and set the first boot order drive back to "Windows Boot Manager".
   1. If you don't do this and try to boot the computer (with GRUB) will ask you for BitLocker Recovery and won't boot.

And because going into BIOS and changing the boot order is time-wasting we suggest:

• You set permanently in the BIOS as first boot device Windows Boot Manager
• When you want to boot into Linux you press F8 or F12 (as most motherboards support) and change the boot disk on demand to linux.

In any case, open a ticket and we are here to help you! 

With Regards,

LMS IT Team

Source: grub - BitLocker & Dual boot - Super User