Moving encrypted HDD to another computer
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Hi
I currently have the following configuration
Windows 10
2 x HDD (1st HDD is for OS only and is unencrypted. 2nd HDD is for data and is encrypted (entire drive encrypted))
Im concerned that I may not be able to access the encrypted HDD if my OS crashes and I need to re-install Windows. What can I do to ensure I never lose access to this encrypted drive in an emergency? I tried to create a rescue disk but got the following error:
The system partition/drive does not appear to be encrypted (neither partially nor fully)
Alternatively if I wanted to move the HDD to another PC, what is the process to ensure the new OS can read the encrypted drive?
Thanks
Angela
Last edit: Angela Smith 2020-05-14
a. Rescue disks are only relevant if you have encrypted the OS.
b. The best guarantee of not losing your data is to ensure it's backed up, to a separate (removable) drive, possibly either fully encrypted, or to a VC file container on it.
c. The contents of your data drive will be unrecoverable if you have relied on a keyfile stored on the OS drive. If you use a password and/or PIM (which you can remember!) you should be OK, hardware failure excepted.
c. Hardware failure excepted, there should be no problem with your encrypted data drive if you need to re-install (or 'reset') Windows, as long as you are careful to ensure only the OS drive is the target of the re-install/reset. You do need to take care; the messages you get while going through the process are sometimes ambiguous, not clear what will result from a 'yes' or 'no'.
d. If the OS is successfully re-installed/reset in situ, you just need to re-install VC, and you're good to go. If you put the data drive in another PC with VC installed, ditto.
e. In both scenarios, you'll need to remove the drive letter (re)assigned to the data drive by the OS, using Windows Disk Management (run > diskmgmt.msc). The drive will show as RAW; if you don't do this, you'll constantly get nagged to format the drive, and you won't be able to use the OS assigned drive letters to mount the drive (they won't show in VC GUI).