TrueCrypt File Corruption

Discussion in 'encryption problems' started by Daniel98177, May 15, 2015.

  1. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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    I have encountered a problem getting to my data mounted on a fully encrypted Seagate 1.0TB Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive. I can mount the Volume without a problem. When I go to the drive and click on it to look at my files, I receive the following two window messages.

    Message Header-Microsoft Windows

    You need to format the dist in drive T: before you can use it.
    Do you want to format it?

    Message Header-Location is not available.

    T:/ is not accessible.
    The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
    Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

    I used the Restore Volume Header under Tools and received a message it was successful.

    I am at a loss as to what to try next.
     
  2. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    What is the S.M.A.R.T status of this your HDD? I suspect the HDD itself might have developed some bad sectors.
    TC or Veracrypt are being used by millions, and such problem you mentioned should be very rare.
     
  3. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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    Thanks for your response. I am not a rocket scientist when it comes to computers, but was able to run the test on the drive and everything came back as OK.
     
  4. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Not sure what to do in this case. Just for the heck of it, you may try to detach this drive from its enclosure, connect directly to a SATA connector adn see if it works.
    Or, try to use Veracrypt to mount you device. Latest version of Veracrypt is compatible with Truecrypt format.
     
  5. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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    Thanks. I will give Veracrypt a try.
     
  6. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Last edited: May 16, 2015
  7. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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    I only had the defective Seagate drive attached to the computer. I actually did the restore at two times using the TrueCrypt and received the same confirmation message at the both times. I have not had a chance to load VeraCrypt on my laptop to see if it will load the Volume and let me look at the files. As mentioned in my initial post, I can load the encrypted volume, but cannot access the files.

    I just looked at disk management on my computer, and am getting message the defective drive needs to be initialized. I am going to do some research to see if I can copy the disk information to another drive before attempting the initialization. I don't know what impact initialization will have on the drive in it's current state and whether I would permanently lose my data.
     
  8. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Do you by any chance have volume header backups for other hard drives? What I meant in the last post was to indicate that if you restore a different header to your Seagate, you'll be able to mount your volume, but could not decrypt the data on it, as indicated in the "Warning" section of the attached image in my last post.

    If you initiate your disk in Disk Management you'll loose your data on it.
     
  9. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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    I assume there are volume header backups on my other two Seagate portable drives. If I were to use either of those to mount the volume, I would not be able to decrypt the data as the Warning mentioned. I have no problem mounting the volume using the existing header, I just can't look at the files. Apparently the MBR may be corrupted and I would lose my data if I initialized the defective disk.
     
  10. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    OK. Would you restore your header backup one more time, and this time make sure you restore the exact header backup for the specific Seagate HDD? i.e., header backup for each hdd is not exchangeable.

    After this restore try again to see if the data can be decrypted. If still not, then I am out of ideas.
     
  11. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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    Same result. I can load the volume but cannot view the files. The only volume header backup I have to use is the one embedded on the disk.

    On the screen where you Select Partition or Device, the line only says:

    Harddisk 2

    When it mounts, it says:

    \Device\Harddisk2\Partition0

    I do not think Partition0 is the correct partition.

    On my other two Seagates, the selection screen line says:

    Harddisk 2
    \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1

    When they mount, it says:

    \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1

    I don't know if it's possible to change from Partition0 to Partition1 on the drive, but I will check it out.

    Thanks for you help in trying to resolve my issue.
     
  12. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Sorry mate could not solve your problem. Hope you'll manage get this solved and have your data back.
     
  13. Daniel98177

    Daniel98177 Registered Member

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