I have been using TrueCrypt for years on my encrypted USB device. The entire device is encrypted as a hidden partition that unlocks when selecting the device. However today - out of the blue - when I try to mount my device - I get a "Header Corrupted - please restore from backup." So I did that - and it went to the screen that told me to move the mouse a bit to create some random generators. Well now - I found I can mount the USB drive again with my password, but the Windows doesn't recognize it - keeps wanting to format it. I guess the file-system was corrupted? I've been reading the thread from Dantz: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/truecrypt-missing-partition-table.336671/ And I am trying to figure out where my situation is. If I mount the drive and open up Winhex for the mounted drive - I see a bunch of letters - with no zeros at all... At this point - I'm wondering if TrueCrypt is decrypting properly at all? Anyone know what is a starting point I should look at? In any case - just to be safe - I did a raw-backup of my entire encrypted USB drive - so I can fiddle with this thing as much as I can until I get my data back...
I would like to add that the only thing that's making me optimistic of my situation is that TrueCrypt could accept my password and mount it to a drive. It also seems to show the encryption algorithm correctly. Other than that - everything is kaput... If my Winhex is not showing any 00000 in the mounted drive - does that mean there's still some encryption going on?
Ok - I think figured it out. The header I am using (and previously "recovered") is not correct at all! That's why I never saw anything but random garbage in Winhex even on the supposedly "mounted-correctly" drive... It wasn't even decrypting right to begin with! I used TestCrypt for over an hour and found a bunch of other headers here - and one of them worked!
I think you'd better off with VeraCrypt, which is based on True Crypt,and they fixed a lot of it's bugs, and security "leaks" .. It's like True Crypt, they continued where the original coders left off... Actually, it was already around when True Crypt was still around... They have done security audits, and it passed them. Open-suorce,so u can get the code also, if u want it.. Click HERE to visit their site.
If not already done, you can backup the header from all your TrueCrypt-volumes and store them in a safe location. In this case you always have a backup if something goes wrong.
