Veracrypt system favorites mount order - Windows services fail to start
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I just encrypted my system disk and added a system favorite volume (on a different disk): everything went well without issue.
The system favorite is mounted a startup - that works well; however, there are windows services (Apache, MySql) which depends on data located on this system favorite, and since I moved to veracrypt, these services fail to start because the system favorite volume is not mounted yet when the attempt to start.
Any idea?
thanks in advance
System: Windows 10, single OS boot
1 ssd for system
1 ssd for data and others
Thanks for the prompt feedback
yes - this is a system favorite, it uses the same password as the pre-boot, and it is indeed correctly mounted at startup. This system favorite disk is however not available for the two services that need it (Apache and Mysql) when these two services start or try to start. Both services work fine when I start them manually after logon.
Do you have the "Mount system favorite volumes when Windows starts" checkbox checked as described? If so, I don't know why the issue happens, but you can change these services start type from "Auto" to "Auto (Delayed)". There's a way to adjust the delay time, handle starting service by task scheduler or script, but just try that first option first.
Last edit: KoRni 2022-08-19
Yes, the option is checked and the system favorite volume is indeed correctly mounted
It does work with the "Auto (Delayed)" for the two services but not with just "Auto"- not sure why that happens...
In any case, many thanks, that was very helpful!
After a few tests, the "Auto (Delayed)" fix works most of the time but not always (for Apache, ok for MySql). I assume it's a timing issue in the way services start in Windows and how "veracrypt System Favorites" service manages this. Irritating but not blocking.
thanks again
Glad that it helped, but it seems that the services still need a bit more time. AFAIK, default "delay" for "Autostart (Delayed)" is 120 s, so you can try increasing it a bit for these services:
1. Start -> Run (or Win+R) and type: services.msc
2. Find the failing service(s), right click and choose Properties
3. Note the service(s) name at the top - it might be something totally different than displayed name.
4. Start -> Run (or Win+R) and type: regedit
5. Navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\@SERVICENAME@", and click it so it opens in the right pane. @SERVICENAME@ is the name of service you noted in step 3.
6. In the right pane, right click, select New -> DWORD (32-bit) and name it AutoStartDelay
7. Double click it, change "Base" from Hexadecimal to Decimal
8. Provide new delay value in Value Data field - in milliseconds, e.g. 180000 or whatever value you think will work and click OK.
9. Repeat 5-9 for all the services you want to increase the autostart delay for.
That's it, good luck :)
Great, thanks again.
Eventually, would it be possible to ensure that the mounting of the system favorites is attempted before starting services (not sure how that would work on windows)?
That's what System Favorites are supposed to do, form the documentation:
I'm really unsure on why doesn't it work in your case.
Do your Apache error or startup logs provide any clues?
Regarding KoRni's remark on the mounting order of system favorites - this is indeed in the documentation but I raised the point because I saw in the Windows service list a Veracrypt service dedicated to mounting system favorites volumes. Maybe there is a disconnect there?
There is nothing in Apache logs because the volume on which Apache resides is not mounted - the error is from Windows which cannot find Apache
So, it's not just data that Apache needs that's located on the system favourire, but the program itself? So, it's not that it tries to start but fails; it just doesn't try?