TrueCrypt Volume Not Found

Discussion in 'encryption problems' started by Anonymous55, Apr 17, 2016.

  1. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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  2. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    So I transferred over to a new motherboard and Windows 7 wouldn't boot off because of that after typing in the Truecrypt boot password, now it's not booting at all and I have to use another hard drive which recognizes my TrueCrypt drive as totally empty. Is everything lost?
     
  3. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    I'll send $20 over PayPal to the anyone that can help me recover my data.
     
  4. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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  5. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    OK, I will take a look, but I have to warn you, I'm pretty rusty on this sort of thing. I used to be very active in TrueCrypt support, but it all seems like a past life to me now, and those memories are fading.

    Anyway, for starters I will point out that even with a normal, unencrypted Windows-based system you can't just change motherboards and expect it to work. There are all sorts of dissimilar hardware issues, driver issues, etc. that are likely to come up, and failure to boot would be a very common scenario. However, it should still be possible to rescue your encrypted data.

    I need more info, so here are a couple of questions to get us started:

    1) From your post #1 it sounds like you encrypted your operating system, i.e. "System encryption", but I want to confirm that before we spend too much time going down that path. If you used TrueCrypt to encrypt your OS then ought to have the specific "Truecrypt Rescue Disk" that you created when you encrypted your system. Do you have that disk (CD)? Or if not, do you at least recall creating it?

    2) Assuming that you did in fact encrypt your operating system, and if you now have that disk attached as an external drive on another system, then the "Mount without preboot authentication" command is likely to work. Have you tried that?
     
  6. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    Oh man...I changed computers and moved the hard drive over...I mean I still have the old computer, but it's taken apart and I don't have the processor anymore.

    1. I think I encrypted the entire drive (with operating system on it). I don't have the Truecrypt Rescue Disk. The one time I need it, I don't make it properly (tried to use a USB stick, thought it worked, it didn't).

    2. Yes, I've tried that option every way I could think of.
     
  7. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Are these the steps you followed?

    Open TC
    Click "Select Device"
    Scroll down the list of drives/partitions and choose the system partition on your external disk (this probably used to be known as Drive C, but now it has most likely been assigned a different drive letter because it is not currently your boot drive)
    Click "OK"
    Select "System, Mount Without Pre-Boot Authentication"
    Enter your password and click "OK"

    So what happens? Do you get the "incorrect password" error message?
     
  8. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    If you're getting the "incorrect password" message while trying to mount your system-encrypted partition from an external drive then you should be aware of a keyboard issue that prevents certain users from being able to enter their usual preboot passwords when they "Mount Without Preboot Authentication".

    This can be the result of using a non-US-English keyboard to encrypt your system. Certain letters and/or symbols on these keyboards can be in different places than on a US-English keyboard, or they may not be present at all. The issue here is that the preboot environment sees the keyboard differently than the OS does, and it can interpret the keystrokes differently if they are coming from a non-US-English keyboard. The end result is that you have to alter either your keyboard layout or your password in order to provide TrueCrypt with the correct password.

    Does this sort of situation apply to you? Did you encrypt your system using a foreign keyboard, or are you now using a different keyboard layout? If so then I will provide additional details and a possible solution.
     
  9. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    When I follow those exact steps I get:
    "WARNING: The host file/device is already in use!"

    When it asks if I want to continue mounting, I select "Yes," then it tells me:
    "Error: Cannot mount volume. The host file/device is already in use. Attempt to mount without exclusive access failed as well."

    I have been using an English keyboard this entire time. Definitely no problems with foreign keyboards.
     
  10. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Either you have selected the wrong partition or you're fighting with a software process that's trying to exert some control over the affected partition. Try temporarily shutting down some unneeded processes, or try rebooting into safe mode. You could also try connecting your external drive to a different computer.
     
  11. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    I tried starting it in safe mode, but when I started TrueCrypt I got "This service cannot be started in Safe Mode," "Unable to connect to the TrueCrypt device driver. TrueCrypt cannot work if the device driver is not running. Please note that, due to a Windows issue, it may be necessary to log off or restart the system before the device driver can be loaded."
     
  12. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    OK, I'm back again and I'll try to look into this tomorrow. Sorry about the delay. I spend all of my time on non-TrueCrypt issues nowadays, but maybe I'll be able to suggest something more.
     
  13. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Oh yeah, I forgot about that. TrueCrypt doesn't run in Safe Mode, does it? Anyway, your error message "WARNING: The host file/device is already in use!" is not a TrueCrypt error, it's merely your PC behaving in a manner that I really don't understand. I suspect that some software process (maybe it's an anti-malware program or something) is just not going to allow you to continue. This is an uncommon problem, and there are a variety of unusual reasons for it. Google the error message and see for yourself. Maybe you will get some ideas from it. You could try using Task Manager or MS-Config (aka System Configuration) to shut things down manually (except TrueCrypt) until hopefully you can get past that error message, but I'm not sure if that will work, and it's a hassle trying to figure out what you can and can't shut down.

    But you know what might work: Try it on a different computer. Are you able to install TrueCrypt 7.1a (no later) on another computer, and then plug your external drive into a USB port, and then try the steps in Post #7 again?

    If not then I will try to come up with a different approach.
     
  14. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    It's an internal drive. I've tried closing everything possible in task manager but I'm still encountering the error. I'll try shutting down services+startup now and see what happens.
     
  15. Anonymous55

    Anonymous55 Registered Member

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    So when I select the partition (Partition1), I still get that error message. But when I select the hard drive "Harddisk 1," I get: Incorrect password or no TrueCrypt volume found (which I guess is expected considering the drive may have been formatted)
     
  16. przemo123

    przemo123 Registered Member

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    Hello
    To solve this problem: "Error: Cannot mount volume. The host file/device is already in use..."
    I have open Windows "Disk Management" took offline disk which was my TruCrypt system drive.
    Then took it back online.

    Go to TrueCrypt
    Mount -> Mount Options -> And select checkboxes for :
    +"Mount volume as removable medium"
    +"Use backup header embedded in volume if available"
    +"Mount partition using system encryption without pre-boot authentication"

    (I don't know if taking the disk offline in "Disk Management" windows tool is necessary. )
     
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