This is the typical approach for this specific issue; lost password.Really depends on the encryption software used to encrypt it.
If we are talking about Microsoft's bitlocker, you can delete and create a new parition via the disk part command and then recreate a new partition in Windows Disk management.
The point of deleting the partition is to deactivate all protection and bypass encryption altogether :grin:Unless the drive itself has security, then yes. As long as you can access the whole drive (encrypted or not) from your OS, you can format it.
Drive level encryption requires the key to access the drive at all. The drive is effectively bricked without it. Laptops BIOS generally allows access to this feature. Many desktop boards do not expose that feature.Encryption is still just data on the drive, that can be wiped. The point of encryption is that the data is not usable, not that it's protected from being overridden.
That's software encryption not hardware encryption.I'd have said that you simply could delete the partition and then recreate it - voila and no need to struggle with reformatting.
Update - I just tried it and I was correct. I created a new partition, bitlocked it, rebooted and it was locked. I then deleted the partition whilst it was locked and recreated it and it's not locked (obviously!)
Sound point, though the OP doesn't go into detail as to what level and most other comments above are re BitlockerThat's software encryption not hardware encryption.
Samsung for example supports BIOS level encryption but they also allow you to Secure Erase to recover the drive. This is not necessarily typical and I wouldn't expect this to work for a HDD for example.
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/M2M/html/support/faqs_03.html
Some systems or BIOS may not support this feature.
. How to set up AES encryption
- In BIOS, Security > Password on boot > HDD Password (※May differ depending on the BIOS)
. The encryption key set for the AES is stored in the NAND of the SSD. If the key is lost, you can only reset the encryption key by performing a Secure Erase.
If you do so, all existing data will be lost.