MBR wiped by windows update - emergency disk in another country
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A windows 10 update wiped the MBR.
The boot/only drive will not boot, saying to use an emergency disk to restore. Usually not a problem, not the first time Windows has done this.
Emergency disk is in another country. Problem.
I was able to mount the partition on another machine by using the veracrypt app on another windows machine:
select device
mount
mount options:
use backup header embedded in volume if available,
mount partition using system encryption without pre-boot authentication.
But is there a way to copy the backup header to the mbr, and have this boot again?
Or is there a way to get this second windows machine that does not have any encrypted volumes on it, create a generic emergency disk, and have it boot to copy the backup header to the mbr?
I tired with the volume dismounted, select the volume in the main GUI. Click on Volume Tools button and select the Restore Volume Header and then select "Restore the volume header from the backup embedded in the volume" option.
The error message I get is: Operation failed due to one or more of the following: incorrect password, incorrect volume pim number, incorrect prf, not a valid volume. Source: RestoreVolumeHeader: 10858
The disk was full disk encrypted.
There are 3 partitions. P1 is some hp default 550mb space that i've never used and is hidden from regular use. P2 is the windows10 partition I need to boot. P3 is 900mb and no idea what its for. Never seen it.
I tried this restore volume header option on all 3 partitions, and the main drive. Same result.
I'm copy/pasting the same password that let P2 mount on the other windows machine. I've never used a pim.
I see many other posts with related, thogh not the exact same, issue.
It looks like veracrypt can not extract the backup volume header from the end of the drive. There is no option to do so in the software that I can see.
Others have been directed to use winhex or dcs-disk cryptography services. But all the forum posts related to these appear to have failed in getting them to work.
Any expert walkthroughs or step by step guides out there to pull the backup header from the last 256 bytes of a boot drive, and save it as the primary volume header?