False Truecrypt mounting error message

Discussion in 'encryption problems' started by kevvyb2005, May 20, 2014.

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  1. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Hi

    Just for the record, I'm not a 'noob' or 'newbie'.

    Have recently re installed win7 x64 and re-encrypted my system drive with TC 7.1a and as before, configured to mount my favourite volumes on start up. Which it does, both my data drives being mounted and accessible without any intervention from me. But it also throws an error each time that there is a volume that is not a Truecrypt volume or the password was incorrect!

    Anyone got any ideas?
     
  2. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    I haven't seen this issue before.

    I assume you have already checked both Favorites and System Favorites to see if there are any additional volumes listed, aside from the ones that are already mounting properly?

    To troubleshoot, I suggest "de-favoriting" your current volumes one by one, or at least change their settings so they will not automount, and then reboot each time to see if or when the error message disappears.
     
  3. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Hi

    Thanks for your reply. I think I misled you. This is not a mounting error message but just the password dialogue for mounting.

    I had already checked for additional listed favourite entries but there were only the two drives that are mounted on D and E when system drive is mounted after boot authentication.

    I changed setting to prevent both from mounting on restart. Message still appeared! Weird.
     
  4. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    I think maybe the only thing to do now is to decrypt then re-encrypt the system drive and both the data drives (latter first probably). Any views?

    UPDATE: dialogue that appears on boot into windows swaps from the password entry dialogue to the error, 'not a TC volume or incorrect password'. Seems to switch from one to the other then sticks on that for a few days.
     
  5. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    I wouldn't decrypt etc. yet. There are still other things to consider.

    TC stores configuration information in xml files stored in the user profile. For Win7 it will most likely be in "C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Truecrypt". I suggest you take a look inside "Favorite Volumes.xml" to see if anything seems to be amiss.
     
  6. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Hi thanks.

    Can't find Favorite Volumes.xml but can find Configuration.xml (only file in folder) and this looks interesting...


    <config key="MountDevicesOnLogon">1</config>
    <config key="MountFavoritesOnLogon">0</config> would have thought this should be 1
    <config key="MountVolumesReadOnly">0</config>
    <config key="MountVolumesRemovable">0</config>
     
  7. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Don't know to what these refer....

    <config key="HotkeyModMountFavoriteVolumes">0</config>
    <config key="HotkeyCodeMountFavoriteVolumes">0</config>
     
  8. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Hmm, maybe I screwed up. "Favorite Volumes.xml" is only present if you use the (non-system) Favorite Volumes feature. Apparently TC does not think that you have any favorite volumes defined, but I think that's because you are only using System Favorite Volumes, which are different.

    Here's a quote from the User Guide, pages 103-104:
    "The following files are saved in the folder %windir%\system32 (32-bit systems) or %windir%\SysWOW64 (64-bit systems): TrueCrypt System Favorite Volumes.xml"

    So maybe you should check the contents of that file instead. Sorry I can't be more helpful here, but I haven't used system encryption in awhile and I am not that familiar with the xml files that it uses.
     
  9. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Just to be clear I have three hard drives. One system, and two data, all encrypted, first system encryption and the other two mounting as 'System Favorites'. Shoudl I mount them as favorites instead. Might that be it?
     
  10. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Checked System Favorite Volumes.xml and it shows my two volumes.

    Prior to checking this I added them as Favorites and removed as System Favorites. They didn't mount.
    Have now switched them back to System favorites and am getting same error again.
     
  11. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Hi

    Looks like there are no more suggestions on this...?
     
  12. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Sorry, I have nothing more to add.
     
  13. BeardyFace

    BeardyFace Registered Member

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    Clutching at straws, how are the two additional drives encrypted? If one is partition and the other drive, mount devices could maybe possibly be getting confused and trying to mount one of them both ways.. like I said, clutching at straws, truthfully I haven't a clue, might find it if I had the box itself to play with, but you've already looked at about everything I can readily think of. Again clutching at straws, does reversing the order you set them as favourites in make any difference? Shouldn't, but sometimes things that shouldn't happen have cures that shouldn't work.

    Other than that I'm as out of ideas as dantz is
     
  14. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Let's clarify:
    When you enter the preboot authentication password, the two system favorite volumes are mounting, right? But you're also seeing the unwanted error messages?

    What happens if you remove the volumes from system favorites? You are still caching the login password, right? So you should be able to merely select the volumes (Select Device), click on a free drive letter and click Mount. If you do this, the volumes should mount without requiring the password to be entered again. Do they?
     
  15. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Hi Dantz

    Good question. I will check again but as far as I remember....

    When you enter the preboot authentication password, the two system favorite volumes are mounting, right? But you're also seeing the unwanted error messages? Yes

    What happens if you remove the volumes from system favorites? You are still caching the login password, right? So you should be able to merely select the volumes (Select Device), click on a free drive letter and click Mount. If you do this, the volumes should mount without requiring the password to be entered again. Do they? Not sure abut that. I'll check again. I think I still had to enter the password to mount them, having removed them from system favorites. Checking now.
     
  16. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Not sure I understood your question.
    1. Have started my desktop with volumes marked as system favorites and got the usual rogue error message about not being truecrypt volume or incorrect password.
    2. Even so the two volumes have mounted automatically.
    3. Removed drives from system favorites
    4. Drives are still mounted (from start up)
    5. I then have to dismount them in order to be able to mount them again
    6. Mounting manually then requires password again.
    [to answer beardyface both drives are full drive encryption plus system drive encryption]
    C Disk 0 System drive encrypted
    D Disk 1 Full Drive Encryption
    E Disk 2 Full Drive Encryption
    Not sure if this is what you meant...?

     
  17. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Alternatively
    1. Removing both disks 1 & 2 from system favorites then restarting
    2. Produces errors shown in screenshot below on start up
    3. The one about desktop is because I store my Desktop library folder on D (disk 1) along with everything else that I backup
    4. The TC password dialogue cannot be about system drive C which is mounted with pre-boot authentication
    5. So what is TC detecting as not mounted that requires a password? How does it know about disks 1 & 2 when they have been removed from system favorites
    SnipImage.JPG
     
  18. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    And Disks 1 and 2 are not listed in "Favorites" either? Set to mount when a certain event occurs? If not, this is strange behavior.

    Maybe your xml configuration files have gotten screwed up somehow. I'm not sure of the exact cure, but it might be as simple as merely deleting the files and then allowing TrueCrypt to recreate them again. Maybe somebody here can test that for you, or has already tried it, but I'm sorry to say that I don't know. And we can't search the TrueCrypt forums anymore, which is a big loss when it comes to troubleshooting things like this.
     
  19. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Nope, they weren't at that point and still are not. Only ever added as system favorites.

    Thanks for your reply. There can't be much harm in deleting the xml files if TC will recreate them. Can you say which xml files?
     
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2014
  20. dantz

    dantz Registered Member

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    Just the two files we've been discussing, "Favorite Volumes.xml" and "TrueCrypt System Favorite Volumes.xml", but I can't recommend doing this without first testing the idea on a spare drive, as I've never done it before and I don't want to take any risks with your system.
     
  21. kevvyb2005

    kevvyb2005 Registered Member

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    Okay thanks.

    I might try renaming them so I can restore them.
     
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