Truecrypt Nightmare

Ah boy where do i start?!!
I have two drives in my PC. one of them i made into a 'encrypted drive'? with truecrypt.
All was fine for a good long while, it housed all my stuff (photos from my job 'wedding photographer' and sooo many other things i treasured such as family videos) purely from stopping any other user of this PC accidentally damaging/deleting any files.
I digress.

SO. i very recently reformatted my PC. and accidentally click the truecypt drive during setup (win7) the setup examined and made a system disk.. I realized my error before any formatting had taken place etc. selected back and chose the correct drive. no problem.. However when my pc booted for the first time and i selected automount devices.. none was found. I then assign a drive letter to show the drive in 'my computer', tried again... Nothing...
In a panic i tried Restore volume header... 'Restore the volume header from the backup' entered password.. Fine.. then something called 'Random pool Enrichment popped up... i carried on.. pressed continue... fine.
Back to automount, entered password and yahoo... drive appeared as always... However... When i go to open it now its giving me the "do you want to format drive"
Anybody, Anywhere please Please help me!!!
I've potentially lost soooo much work and many happy memories.
Any assistance will have me in your debt!

 

You should never have allowed your encrypted drive to remain connected to the system while installing/reinstalling Windows, as this is an almost sure-fire way to damage your volume. Windows does not recognize encrypted partitions or drives as being 'valid', so if it wants to use the space for something, it will do so. This is especially common during OS installation, but it can happen at other times as well. This is one reason why all TrueCrypt users are urged to keep backups of all their important data.

Your volume has apparently experienced both header damage and file-system damage. However, based on your description of events, most of your data is probably still there and some of it will most likely be recoverable.

For starters, mount the volume and examine its contents using a data-recovery program. Many TrueCrypt users have had good results with GetDataBack, R-Studio, File Scavenger, TestDisk (used for data recovery, not repair) and PhotoRec, but there are many other good programs out there as well.

Date recovery can be a long, tedious process. Every situation is a little different, and you'll have to learn how to match each program to your situation. Be sure to read the documentation for each program. For starters use each program in read-only mode only (if there's a choice).

If you can't find any data at all, that is, no recognizable file or folder names whatsoever, then post back and we will try to determine whether or not your original partition structure may have been altered.

Avoid writing anything to the affected drive, and don't try using any file system repair tools (yet). Although certain tools such as chkdsk, testdisk etc. might be able to repair the damage, they can also greatly interfere with the data recovery process, resulting in fewer files recovered.

If your currently-inaccessible data is crucially important then you should make a sector-by-sector clone of the entire disk and perform your data-recovery attempts on the clone. Or, if you prefer, you can make a sector-by-sector image of the disk and keep it as a backup. Either way, it's going to require an entire blank disk of the same size or larger, as encrypted data is not compressible.

 

This is exactly why, I never encrypt anything important to me. Its even more true without a back-up. You are better to use online encrypted storage for family photos. This way you are likely never to loose them.

 

yep I back mine up on DVDs, you know Bluerays are cheaper now and offers more than five times the storage capacity of regular DVDs and can hold like 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc!

 

^^
OT. But they are still much more pricey than HDD.
For example in my country I can buy 5 (25GB each) Philips Blueray Disk for $23.
It's x3.5 higher price per GB comparing to HDD eg. 3TB WD disk drive.
Plus you have to buy Blueray Disk Burner which is an another extra cost.

 

$50 a year/(1TB)Online Encrypted Data Storage.

Much more efficient.

 

Can't really say efficient w/o Google Fibre-like bandwidth, or lots of patience and little need for frequent access. Much worse disk imaging support as well.

 

Thanks guys!! Really appreciated!!!
I am about to mount the 'empty' device and run R-Studio.. Wish me luck.. I'll post pack results once completed.
M

 

This really isn't a "TrueCrypt" nightmare, is it? More like a PEBCAK problem, right?

Unless going full disk, IMO, volumes are way better than device encryption. All my volumes are backed up nightly, to a Windows Home Server.

PD

 

Efficient in what terms?

I don't like few things - it isn't physical mine even if I paid for it.
$50 per 1TB so it will be $150 per 3TB.
3TB WD Red Edition HDD costs ~$170 and it's yours without subscriptions - you paid only once.
Another thing is your Internet connection.
The slowest method for external drives is USB 2.0 these days. So your write/read transfers should be around 22MB/s.
For this speed you would need 176Mb Download and 176Mb Upload connection which will costs you another extra bucks.

 

So. Many hours later,
the process is complete. It has picked up quite a lot of files but from the previous state the HD was in. pre encryption.
It seems to have found nothing that was within the encrypted device.
Believe me folks i am kicking myself pretty much most moments for not having a back up of files, really i am.

Any thoughts on the next steps anyone?

Thanks
M

 

So. Many hours later,
the process is complete. It has picked up quite a lot of files but from the previous state the HD was in. pre encryption.
It seems to have found nothing that was within the encrypted device.
Believe me folks i am kicking myself pretty much most moments for not having a back up of files, really i am.

Any thoughts on the next steps anyone?

Thanks
M

 

Ah Ha!! hold that thought.

Just discovered within the route. My missing Truecrypt folders etc.. Starting recovery again..
wish me luck guys!!

M

 

Good luck.

 

IT WORKED!!!!!
You guys are truly awesome!! Big BIG pats on the backs all round and if i ever cross your path in life, a good night out and a slap up meal to say thanks!

So very happy!
So, everything feared lost (photos and vids of my child growing up and general family life, Christmases, holidays, birthdays etc.) recovered! plus all my work that has taken quite some time to build up!
Several lessons to be learned here.
1. BACKUP!!!
2. With a little help & advice the seemingly impossible is achievable. Believe me at one stage i thought i was going to have no choice but to accept, format and start the collection again (albeit missing the 7 years of photos).
3. BACKUP!!!
4. Buy a drive and BACKUP!
5. Remove encrypted drives from machines pre format/setup etc.
6. wear sunscreen
7. You guys rock!

So i now sit with workable data and a brand new 3tb Drive with a backup copy of it all. May even invest in a Blueray drive to create and archive too. Should never assume even your backups will not fail. And after such a scare as this; it has become apparent just how precious and 'fragile' the digital data I've collected is...

Thanks again All!
till next time.

M

 

Good to hear that you've recovered all your data