Having problems with TrueCrypt

[hellfreeze]

Today I started up TrueCrypt as always, clicked "Auto-Mount Devices," entered my password and the partition mounted. When I went to open it through My Computer on Windows Vista it told me that I need to format the drive before I can use it.

Does anyone know what went wrong? I've never had this happen before and I'm afraid of losing my data.

 

[hellfreeze]

I did some research and it looks like the drive somehow got converted to RAW. How would I go about converting it back to NTFS without losing my data?

 

[blackangst1]

So youre mounting a container then? Then, when (for instance) opening my computer and seeing your now mounted drive, it gives this message? Or is it a partition youre mounting? Also, can you open it through TC?

 

[hellfreeze]

Originally posted by: blackangst1
So youre mounting a container then? Then, when (for instance) opening my computer and seeing your now mounted drive, it gives this message? Or is it a partition youre mounting? Also, can you open it through TC?

It's not a container. When I set it up I encrypted an entire partition and chose the option where you have the volume and then the hidden volume inside it. So pretty much just an entire non-os partition encryption.

Yes, it gives me this message after I have mounted the partition through TC.

 

[hellfreeze]

I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I just noticed this:

The problem started after I mounted my external hard drive. I tried mounting the "bad" partition while the external (which has no problems) was mounted and I couldn't. I did notice this though:

When both of them are mounted (at different times) both have the same volume address: \Device\Harddisk0\Partition7

These are two different hard drives. I tried completely disconnecting the external hard drive and after mounting the "bad" partition I still get the same error. Is it possible that something got messed up in the MBR/boot record? How would I go about fixing this?

 

[hellfreeze]

I disconnected the external drive and restarted but I'm still getting the same problem. If it helps, here's a screenshot of the volume properties as seen through TC:

TC screenshot

I also did the "restore volume header" through TC but it didn't help.

 

[hellfreeze]

I tried mounting it using Ubuntu and it gives me this error message:

mount: you must specify the filesystem type

Does this mean I need to convert the drive to NTFS/FAT32? How do I do this without losing my data?

 

[blackangst1]

Originally posted by: hellfreeze

Originally posted by: blackangst1
So youre mounting a container then? Then, when (for instance) opening my computer and seeing your now mounted drive, it gives this message? Or is it a partition youre mounting? Also, can you open it through TC?

It's not a container. When I set it up I encrypted an entire partition and chose the option where you have the volume and then the hidden volume inside it. So pretty much just an entire non-os partition encryption.

Yes, it gives me this message after I have mounted the partition through TC.

Ok a few things. First. Im assuming the volume mounts. After you mount the volume, it shows up in the TC window. Can you double click the volume within TC? What you are describing is what happens when you open "My Computer" and see your un-mounted partition there...as a raw volume. If you double click it within explorer, it gives that message. But what happens when you double click when mounted in TC?

HERE is my partition mounted. If I double click the highlighted line (the mounted volume) it opens it up.

Originally posted by: hellfreeze
It's not a container. When I set it up I encrypted an entire partition and chose the option where you have the volume and then the hidden volume inside it. So pretty much just an entire non-os partition encryption.

Do you get the same message whether you mount your regular or yuour hidden volume?

Originally posted by: hellfreeze
The problem started after I mounted my external hard drive. I tried mounting the "bad" partition while the external (which has no problems) was mounted and I couldn't. I did notice this though:

When both of them are mounted (at different times) both have the same volume address: \Device\Harddisk0\Partition7

Now we're getting somewhere. So, you have two TC volumes, correct? The external and another one? Something is wrong then, because according to this"\Device\Harddisk0\Partition7" you have at LEAST 7 partitions on your first HD (Harddisk0), and partition #7 is your TC drive (or one of them). With an external, it should read something other than \Harddisk0 (like Harddisk1 for example).

Originally posted by: hellfreeze
I tried mounting it using Ubuntu and it gives me this error message:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
Does this mean I need to convert the drive to NTFS/FAT32? How do I do this without losing my data?

Whoa slow down cowboy hehe format = GONE. First of all, the reason Linux gives this reason is the same reason Windows does: it doesnt recognize the format of the volume (its encrypted...not formatted ). If you format it, your encrypted volume is bye bye. An encrypted volume will always show as a raw, unpartitioned drive. So, no, you cant convert (aka format without losing data.



You have a few things going on it sounds like. Lets try and get into your volumes and recover your...um...stuff first. My suggestion is start over to clear up your volume issues.

 

[hellfreeze]

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Ok a few things. First. Im assuming the volume mounts. After you mount the volume, it shows up in the TC window. Can you double click the volume within TC? What you are describing is what happens when you open "My Computer" and see your un-mounted partition there...as a raw volume. If you double click it within explorer, it gives that message. But what happens when you double click when mounted in TC?

HERE is my partition mounted. If I double click the highlighted line (the mounted volume) it opens it up.

When I double click on the drive in TC, it tried to open up the drive but gives me the same formatting prompt as Windows. My TC screen looks like yours, except mine says "hidden" under Type.

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Do you get the same message whether you mount your regular or yuour hidden volume?

Yes I do. I tried mounting the regular (outer) layer while the external was connected but couldn't. They use the same password, but in the past I was able to mount both at the same time on different drive letters.

Originally posted by: blackangst1
Now we're getting somewhere. So, you have two TC volumes, correct? The external and another one? Something is wrong then, because according to this"\Device\Harddisk0\Partition7" you have at LEAST 7 partitions on your first HD (Harddisk0), and partition #7 is your TC drive (or one of them). With an external, it should read something other than \Harddisk0 (like Harddisk1 for example).

Yes, I have two volumes. I took a closer look at it today and when I went to select the external drive to mount, it listed it's path as \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1 but when I mounted it it shows as \Device\Harddisk0\Partition7 in TC. I have a feeling something got modified to make TC do this, and that the partitions are still usuable.

Originally posted by: blackangst1
You have a few things going on it sounds like. Lets try and get into your volumes and recover your...um...stuff first. My suggestion is start over to clear up your volume issues.

Agreed. Starting over might be the best option, but I'm trying to save whatever I can off the drive. I'm thinking of emailing TC or posting on their forums (once I can activate my account) to see if they know a remedy to this. Do you have any experience on their forums?

Right now I'm removing everything off of the external drive and will be formatting it to remove the encryption and to see if somehow this will have an impact on the partition I can't access. I don't think it will, but I'm running out of options.

 

[hellfreeze]

I made a little progress, but now I'm confused as ever. I formatted the external hard drive, disconnected it, then went to mount the outer volume on my internal partition. It mounted and showed me 110 gb free out of 110 gb (not good!). I dismounted it and tried mounting the hidden volume but I still get the error message saying that I need to format the disk.

 

[hellfreeze]

Now, with the external drive disconnected, I ran a file recovery program on the outer encrypted partition and it's showing me everything that I thought was on the external hard drive.

I'm just lost now. I'm assuming something in the MBR got messed up...is there any way of salvaging anything or just start over?

 

[blackangst1]

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