” 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.
Which, if true, resulted in me Googling, "how can I block 24H2" (w. quotes) which results in Google saying,
No results found for "how can I block 24H2". Likewise: No results found for "how you can block 24H2".Hard to believe. Yet I have blocked certain updates in the past (besides usually delaying updates for 45 days), which is still possible.
How to manage Windows updates
Topic: How to unpause Windows updates “without” using ...resume..
As for other aspects, this 24h2 update could warrant its own thread.
Aug 14, 2024 Microsoft is enabling BitLocker device encryption by default on Windows 11
Microsoft is making BitLocker device encryption a default feature in its next major update to Windows 11. If you clean install the 24H2 version that’s rolling out in the coming months, device encryption will be enabled by default when you first sign in or set up a device with a Microsoft account or work / school account... If you just upgrade to 24H2, Microsoft won’t enable device encryption automatically.
The feature could impact SSD performance on some devices. Tom’s Hardware tested this software version of BitLocker last year and found it could slow drives by up to 45 percent...- https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/14/24220138/microsoft-bitlocker-device-encryption-windows-11-default
Microsoft patches TPM 2.0 bypass to prevent Windows 11 installs on PCs with unsupported CPUs ..Many users with officially unsupported PCs could successfully install Windows 11 using a 'trick' that circumvents its hardware requirement verification process with a '/product server' command line. .. However, Bob Pony quickly found that Microsoft had patched this trick in the latest Canary Build, prompting the need for the TPM (Trusted Platform Module) 2.0 protocol... Microsoft rolled out a patch in its Windows 11 Insider Build 27686 (Dilithium) that effectively blocks this trick. - https://www.tomshardware.com/software/operating-systems/microsoft-patches-tpm-20-bypass-to-prevent-windows-11-installs-on-pcs-with-unsupported-cpus
These apps will prevent Windows 11 version 24H2 from installing on your PC..Windows 11 version 24H2, the upcoming OS version that comes to the public in the second part of this year, has a list of apps that prevent it from being installed. If you use one of them, you may be out of luck with upgrading to 24H2 unless you remove the app. Here's the list...
These locks are stored inside the appraiser.sdb file.... with Windows 11 24H2, Microsoft is not only blocking old CPU without the POPCNT instruction (i.e. without SSE4.2 / SSE4a), but also has expanded the list of soft locks. From the same appraiser.sdb, you can also get the list of hardware that is not compatible with the OS. Here's its current content for Windows 22H4. - https://winaero.com/these-apps-will-prevent-windows-11-version-24h2-from-installing-on-your-pc/
BitLocker Waiting for Activation: What Is It & How to Remove Copy and paste the command: manage-bde -off C: into the command window and hit the “Enter” key. You should replace the letter C with the actual BitLocker drive letter. - https://www.m3datarecovery.com/news/how-to-remove-bitlocker-waiting-for-activation.html
A woman I know just lost her hard drive to bitlocker in Win 10. Microsoft should be telling users how to avoid bitlocker at all costs, not enabling it for all users. It can be very useful for expert users, but disastrous for non-experts.