TrueCrypt drive lost it's partitions

[Daffodil]

I have an external HD that I've got all my backups on. I plugged the drive into an old HDD enclosure I had lying around and the enclosure seems to have removed the partitioning from the drive.

 

When I plug it in Windows (10) recognises the drive in Disk Management but thinks the drive is "unallocated"

 

I've had a little look with hex editor (which I don't really understand atm) and I can see data on the drive after an initial load of 00000.

 

Is there a way to get the partition back so TrueCrypt can unlock the data or do I have to accept the loss of my data?

 

Thank you for your help!

[LeMarchand]

I have an external HD that I've got all my backups on. I plugged the drive into an old HDD enclosure I had lying around and the enclosure seems to have removed the partitioning from the drive.

 

When I plug it in Windows (10) recognises the drive in Disk Management but thinks the drive is "unallocated"

 

I've had a little look with hex editor (which I don't really understand atm) and I can see data on the drive after an initial load of 00000.

 

Is there a way to get the partition back so TrueCrypt can unlock the data or do I have to accept the loss of my data?

 

Thank you for your help!

 

I have a Veracrypt disk that is seen as unallocated by Windows, which advises me to format it on connection. I ignore this and mount it with Veracrypt (which shows the partition) and it all works as expected. I think this behaviour is intentional, so as not to flag a drive as a candidate for hidden data.

 

You've probably tried this, though! Might be worth trying Veracrypt if you've only tried Truecrypt. Would also be worth updating to Veracrypt anyway.

Edited April 10, 2020 by LeMarchand

[Daffodil]

I have a Veracrypt disk that is seen as unallocated by Windows, which advises me to format it on connection. I ignore this and mount it with Veracrypt (which shows the partition) and it all works as expected. I think this behaviour is intentional, so as not to flag a drive as a candidate for hidden data.

 

You've probably tried this, though! Might be worth trying Veracrypt if you've only tried Truecrypt. Would also be worth updating to Veracrypt anyway.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

I'll give Veracrypt a try but it used to be that TrueCyrpt would see "Harddisk 2" and then below that it would see a partition which would be what I mounted. It also used to be the case that Windows would say "The dive you just connected needs to be formatted..." when I connected the disk but it no longer says anything.

[Daffodil]

I have a Veracrypt disk that is seen as unallocated by Windows, which advises me to format it on connection. I ignore this and mount it with Veracrypt (which shows the partition) and it all works as expected. I think this behaviour is intentional, so as not to flag a drive as a candidate for hidden data.

 

You've probably tried this, though! Might be worth trying Veracrypt if you've only tried Truecrypt. Would also be worth updating to Veracrypt anyway.

 

No VeraCrypt cant get it either.

[LeMarchand]

How did you use the disk previously? Was it just in a computer or in a different caddy? Is it possible that the caddy is introducing a variable of some sort?

 

Also, I have vague memories of what was possibly TC allowing you to set a byte offset, to further add security. Finally (though I'm leaning towards a hardware problem), did you find the Truecrypt Mode setting in VC?

[Daffodil]

As an external using a SATA to a USB connector. The HDD was loose as it were. I tried sticking it into an old LaCie "Big Disk Quadra" caddy and that's when the partition vanished. The partition now no longer shows up no matter if it's in the big disk caddy or not

[Daffodil]

Also I tried it with another old HDD and the same happened. The partition was lost when connected to the caddy. Then I had to re-partition the drive after which it worked fine. Clearly the LaCie caddy is for some reason stripping the partition data off the drives so they look unformatted/unitilaized by Windows. The drives still work fine themselves.

 

Also yes I found the TC mode in VC.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Daffodil

[LeMarchand]

Also I tried it with another old HDD and the same happened. The partition was lost when connected to the caddy. Then I had to re-partition the drive after which it worked fine. Clearly the LaCie caddy is for some reason stripping the partition data off the drives so they look unformatted/unitilaized by Windows. The drives still work fine themselves.

 

Also yes I found the TC mode in VC.

 

Worth trying the USB to SATA connector again? Have you tried attaching either to a Linux machine? Both TC and VC are available for Linux.

 

If there is some way to make a bit-by-bit copy first (or if you like to live dangerously!) https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk might help with the partition. Read the documentation first - I have inadvertently deleted everything with it, but have also had some success (but never tried it on an encrypted drive).

[mavhc]

Right, step 1 is connect it directly, does it come back?

Step 2 is teskdisk https://html5.litten.com/updated-how-to-fix-external-disk-drive-suddenly-became-raw/