I do not understand your comment.
How can you log in if you do NOT have a Microsoft Account pass word?
My last two Windows computers automatically imported 100% of my data and my settings from the previous Windows computer.
Most of that data is in the Cloud, I think.
I do not understand what is encrypted on my hard drive.
” Most of that data is in the Cloud, I think.
I do not understand what is encrypted on my hard drive.”
You are an example of someone who will lose your data one day if you are using Windows 11.
Their latest 24H2 version comes out as soon as Sept. which forces Bitlocker encryption.
Verify you can log in with the Bitlocker account and the Microsoft account website. You will also see the Bitlocker password there so print it out. Copy it to a flash drive.
https://account.microsoft.com/account/manage-my-account?refd=www.google.com
You are probably using OneDrive for backup. It does not back up everything. If you have a separate email program like Thunderbird, that mail is not backed up nor are the bookmarks from Chrome or Firefox, only Edge.
You need a bitlocker account, a microsoft account and a windows account in future latest versions of Windows 11 and most people will not even know about Bitlocker nor backup the long password on paper or flash drive nor realize it is stored online where you use the microsoft account.
You can skip backup and the account so when Bitlocker password prompt appears in the future you will lose everything until you find out that microsoft account and if you do not have one then your data is gone. Microsoft is now going to force you to backup the accounts but....
There are many many postings of people who have their password but it does not work. I use to do support at work on this and the business solution when the bitlocker password does not work is send the pc in to get wiped and a new copy of windows install. OneDrive is used so they will get most of their files back. A loss of a week and some files. External drives are wiped and no files are recovered so complete loss.
4 Ways to Check BitLocker’s Status in Windows 10 ( ver 11 is similar )
https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-check-bitlocker-status-in-windows-10/
1. Open the Start menu.
2. Search for “Control Panel”.
3. Change the view to either “Small icons” or “Large icons”.
4. Locate and click on “BitLocker Drive Encryption”.
5. You will observe the BitLocker status (on or off) listed next to each of your drives.