VeraCrypt New Processor TPM Message Issue

Question

I upgraded my processor and now I get this message when starting my computer:

We detected a new processor which will change the data/structure of the storage space for firmware TPM. If you did not apply TPM function, please press Y to continue, otherwise please follow instructions below:

Press Y to reset fTPM, of you have Bitlocker or encryption enabled, the system will not boot without a recovery key.

Press N to keep previous fTPM record and continue system boot, fTPM will NOT enable in new processor. You can swap back to the old processor to recover TPM related keys and data.

So far I've just been pressing "N" but that isn't really a satisfactory solution. (also kind of a security risk, no) Can someone explain to me what I have to do? My harddrive is only encrypted with VeraCrypt.

What is that recovery key they're talking about? I created a thumb drive for recovery when encrypting my harddrive. Is that what they mean or is it something different? Where do I find these recovery keys?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers, Russell

Answer 1

The message talks about a Bitlocker recovery key. Unless you are running Windows with activated Bitlocker (or the full-disk encryption used on some device running Windows 10/11 Home) you can ignore this message.

VeraCrypt to my knowledge does not make use of the TPM, so resetting it has no effect on your encrypted disk.

If you have an Bitlocker encrypted system with TPM you need the recovery key every time the system state changes which results in a blocked TPM. If Bitlocker uses TPM for securing the encryption key in such a case the key becomes inaccessible. The recovery key is a password that unlocks a special alternative TPM independent encryption key and allows you to boot in such a case.