Reminding beginners about BitLocker encrypttion before installing Ubuntu

[mshafeeksa]

Background:

This suggestion comes from a bitter experience of mine. I started TOP few days back and had to install Ubuntu to my laptop. I followed the steps given in the course and after installing Ubuntu, I realized that there was a Bitlocker encryption on my drives which disallowed me to login to my PC. It asked me to go back to Windows and remove the encryption. I restarted my PC to realize that I had to enter a Bitlocker Encryption recovery key to login to Windows. I had no idea what Bitlocker Encryption is and had to do some research on internet about it. In my research, I found that some new laptops come with a Bitlocker Encryption done by manufacturer themselves. And the recovery key is in the Microsoft account of the user. To my bad luck, when I went to the link given by Microsoft forums to find the key, it said 'Try a different URL'. On further research, I realized that this is a known issue for many years, many users have been affected by it and Microsoft have not addressed this issue yet. Long story short, I had to format my entire PC and lose all the files I had.

Suggestions:

It would be great to warn users about the Bitlocker Encryption. Asking them to check if their PC is encrypted and if yes, saving the Bitlocker Encryption recovery key somewhere safe or printing it down before proceeding to install Ubuntu will be a great addition to the course so that no other user falls in this pitfall right in the beginning when they start this incredible journey with a very positive attitude.
Cheers