Veracrypt Partition inaccessible/corrupt?

Discussion in 'encryption problems' started by Alex Vandruis, Dec 5, 2015.

  1. Alex Vandruis

    Alex Vandruis Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    Posts:
    3
    So...I'm going to explain this as every bit detailed as I possibly can to get this sorted. Excuse any clustered stuff as my mind is all over the place as of late :).

    Around 2-3 days ago, I encrypted my 510gb partition on my 2tb hard drive with Veracrypt. All was well. During that night I left my PC running overnight to encrypt another thing, which was another entire hard drive (around 460gb). Alongside this encryption was CCleaner running to 0 out empty space on my PC (the drives/partitions I just listed were not included).

    The following morning, sometime during the middle of the day I noted I could no longer mount the first partition I encrypted, and that it also no longer was in Windows Explorer. After a bit of panic, I checked and saw that it was now unallocated space.

    After a day or so of researching, I backed up my entire partition (in 2 huge files) with Bootice (similar to WinHex which I also used but not for this), why 2 files you might be wondering? I simply did not have enough space on one drive to backup 510gb. So instead, I split it, 440gb on one drive, 74 on the other. (it equals 514gb total apparently). I made 100% sure that I started the back up right from the exact sector I cut the other off on. So if necessary I can always buy a 1tb hard drive and combine those two files to make a full backup. Anyways moving on from the backup stuff..........I checked the whole thing with WinHex, all of my data should be there. The entire thing is full of what looks to be encrypted data, nothing is readable, readable as in plain text, and there is no 0's to indicate it was formatted. The only bit that is not right is a few thousand sectors/blocks at the end (there are nearly 3.9 billion blocks on the drive and 1 billion on this partition).

    Regardless of this, I managed to create a RAW (unformatted) partition over the unallocated space using DMDE, which allowed me to mount the partition in VC. It now appears as \Device\Harddisk2\Partition2 (as it originally did). New problem after that, now I can't open the partition in Windows Explorer, and NO data recovery programs (tried 5 of ones recommended by some very smart people who are on various forums) can find my files. All one found is 240gb of SWF files which I read could be my data but clustered and without the original name or file formats, which is useless to me I think.

    I also after some reading think my problem is a corrupted header of sorts to where Windows and nothing can recognize the partition to read it? Not sure, might just be my confused mind giving me false problems now haha.


    Programs tried for Data recovery:
    Remo Recover
    Lazesoft Recovery
    GetDataBack (all 3 variants)
    EaseUS Data Recovery
    Minitool Power Data Recovery + Partition Wizards built-in tool
    TestDisk/the one that comes in the rar (starts with an R)
    Spinrite (ancient, was desperate lol)
     
  2. Alex Vandruis

    Alex Vandruis Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    Posts:
    3
    EDIT: After reading a comment by Dantz on another post here....I tried the "search for ten 0's on your mounted TC/VC volume" and well.....all is encrypted where some or all shouldn't be. So if I'm right, header is messed up and henceforth my files are not decrypting. Explains why I can't find anything with the programs I listed.
     
  3. Alex Vandruis

    Alex Vandruis Registered Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2015
    Posts:
    3
    EDIT #2: Ok so I rebooted my PC to experiment with the partition I need my data from. I tried remounting it, it failed without the "backup header" checked. So my latest question is this, can I take this backup header and use it to fix my original header? To my knowledge they are supposed to be the same, just you know, one is a backup? Anyways is it possible (if this is indeed my problem)? Also in any case, should I now use the "backup volume header" option from Volume tools to back it up or is this something I can't do anymore and should have done before it got messed up? By the way I am really sorry for spamming this post so much, just this is really important to me and anything that I think might be useful I would really like for the experts here to see as it might be helpful in one way or another.
     
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.