How to access Windows encrypted partitions using Bitlocker from Linux

There are many reasons users want to boot Windows and Linux dual. Most of the time, you have little trouble using both of these operating systems, but if you have an encrypted Windows partition with BitLocker, you will have trouble accessing your files.

There is another one to fix this problem that is using free Linux tools called Dislocker. You can use Dislocker to decrypt and mount the encrypted partition by BitLocker so you can access it while running Linux. This article will show you how to use Dislocker to access encrypted partitions by BitLocker.

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Install Dislocker

Dislocker is able to decrypt partitions encrypted by BitLocker. It converts them into virtual partitions, which can then be mounted on Linux and accessed like any other partition.

How to access Windows encrypted partitions using Bitlocker from Linux Picture 1

If running on Debian or Ubuntu-based Linux distributions, including elementary OS and Linux Mint, enter the following command in the terminal to install Dislocker.

 sudo apt install dislocker 

Create two new mount directories

Create two folders before starting decoding. The first directory for dislocker-file, this is the 'file' virtual NTFS partition created by Dislocker before you mount it for access. The second folder is used when actually mount the decrypted partition.

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Enter the following commands in the terminal to create the directory you need:

 sudo mkdir -p / media / bitlocker 
 sudo mkdir -p / media / mount 

Find the BitLocker partition

You need to know the device name of the decrypted partition to notify Dislocker to decrypt it. Use fdisk to list all available partitions.

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Run the following command:

 sudo fdisk -l 

Write down the device name of the encrypted partition using BitLocker.

Decode the BitLocker partition

The next step is to decode the partition. To decode the partition, you need to provide the device name of the BitLocker partition and the password to use when encrypting the partition. Enter the following command:

 sudo dislocker -V -u - / media / bitlocker 

Replace with the device name of the partition you noted earlier. Replace with the BitLocker password you used to encrypt your drive.

If you want to decode the volume in read-only format, add the -r option:

 sudo dislocker -r -V -u - / media / bitlocker 

Mount partition

The final step is to mount the partition so you can access your files. Use the following command:

 sudo mount -o loop / media / bitlocker / dislocker-file / media / mount 

You can now access the / media / mount folder in the file manager and have full access to the encrypted volume on Linux.

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If you want to mount the read-only partition, add the -r option:

 sudo mount -r -o loop / media / bitlocker / dislocker-file / media / mount 

You can encrypt your partitions on Linux to ensure that all your data on that platform is kept safe.

I wish you all success!