Error: No Key Protectors Found. Today

If your computer is currently turned on and you are staring at this error in the command line, until you do this.

You are probably in one of two scenarios right now: error: no key protectors found.

This is a classic "ghost in the machine" error for Windows administrators. It usually appears when you run manage-bde -protectors -get C: expecting to see recovery keys, but instead, you get slapped with If your computer is currently turned on and

If the protectors are truly gone but you have your Recovery Key, you can try to strip the encryption entirely via Command Prompt: manage-bde -off C: error: no key protectors found.

Most "no key protector" errors are caused by the motherboard "forgetting" the TPM.

Here is the interesting technical reality: