An information handing system provides a method for recovering encryption keys. The method includes providing a first recording medium of a plurality of recording media in a first drive of a plurality of drives. A first key is requested from a primary key manager (PKM) associated with the first drive, wherein the first drive provides a first key identifier (ID) to the PKM. If it is determined that the PKM provides the first key corresponding to the first key ID, a first identifying information for the PKM is stored in a memory for the first recording medium.