Invalid password after recent Windows 10 update
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I'm running VeraCrypt 1.17 and have my entire systems partition (Windows 10) encrypted. I've been able to boot via the bootloader successfully for weeks by typing in my password and then just pressind "enter" when it asks for a PIM. Recently I noticed Windows had installed some updates, and when I shut down the computer it started installing them. When I turned on the computer later in the evening and typed in my pattword in the VeraCrypt boot loader, I got the message "Incorrect Password". I'm 100% certain I'm typing the same password, I've pressed F5 to view what I'm typing just to make sure. I've even switched keyboards.
Next, I naturally got out my recovery USB which I created when I was encrypting the system drive (bootable usb using the ISO veracrypt gave me). I'm able to boot it up, and have tried both "Restore key data (volume header)" and "permanently decrypt system partition/drive" options. In both cases it asks me for the password, which I'm sure I'm typing in correctly, and it's telling me invalid password.
I'm sure this is related to the windows update? I'm not sure why my password would stop working and also the same password with the recovery iso is no longer working? What are my options? Am I screwed from a windows update?
Have you tried cold booting your system verses rebooting?
Yes I have. I left my computer powered off overnight.
I'm in the process of grabbing a secondary hdd now to install a fresh version of Windows 10 onto. From there, I'm hoping I might be able to save the drive by mounting it with Veracrypt and trying to decrypt it that way, bypassing the boot loader.
I would remove the current HDD which contains the OS you are attempting to access before you install the new HDD and install Windows. The Windows installation will often initialize disk drives when it does not recongnize them as formatted. Encrypted drives show-up to Windows as RAW format.
You will need to have VeraCrypt installed after you install the new OS on the new HDD with the old OS being the secondary drive.
Mount the old OS as a volume using the Options button to enable the checkbox "Mount partition using system encryption without pre-boot authentication".
Currently, it is not possible to decrypt the system encryption on another machine or OS. However, you should be able to copy the data off the mounted drive.
I'm in the process of installing Windows fresh now on my new HDD I picked up, I made sure to disconnect the encrypted drive, thanks for the tip!
If I can't decrypt the system encryption but I can copy data off it (assuming my original password is going to work), does that mean I could do something like clone the mounted partition to a different drive, then format the encrypted drive and move the clone back there again? Trying to avoid having to re-install all my software which isn't "portable".
Any idea how I got into this situation in the first place? I just installed VeraCrypt about a week ago and had no issues until this Windows update, now everything seems to have gone awry. I'd be hesitant to install it again (at least at the system level) until I know what could have been done to prevent it.
Do you know the exact Win10 version you were running when the patch occurred?
How many times since you installed VeraCrypt did you succesfully boot using the VeraCrypt bootloader since you only had it installed for a week?
Did you notice the size of the System Reserved Partition before/after Win10 patch? Did the size change?
https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/workitem/290
Did you disable fast startup in Windows 10?
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-fast-startup-turn-off-windows-10-a.html
Last edit: Enigma2Illusion 2016-03-05
Unfortunately I'm not sure the exact version number before the update was applied, but I'm always very up-to-date so it would have been the very latest x64 Windows 10 with all updates within the past week. Whichever update was applied would have been very very recent.
Since I installed the bootloader, I'd successfully booted at least 10-12 times. I power off my computer daily, and had to do through the bootloader all the time during the week I've had it installed. I have the password still written down while I'm trying to remember it (it was a diceware password).
I didn't notice the size of the system reserved partition, but right now according to the Veracrypt "select device" screen, my original HDD has 3 partitions. The first is 350MB with the label "system reserved", the second is my actual systems partition, and the third is an unknown 450MB partition. I'm not actually sure what the purpose of that third partition is for, hadn't noticed it before?
Fast startup might have been enabled, because I used to sometimes have my computer in a hibernate mode to enable "wake on lan" functionality, Normally I would need to manually enter this mode though, but perhaps the update somehow put my computer into a sleep/hibernate state? What would be the implicatinos of sleep/hibernate with a system encrypted drive?
Currently I've installed a fresh version of Windows. I can see the partitions on the other drive, but Veracrypt is unable to mount any of them. I followed your instructions above and used the "Mount partition using system encryption without pre-boot authentication" option. I get "Operation failed due to one or more of the following:"... it has four points, incorrect password, incorrect volume pim, incorrect prf, not a valid volume. The code at the bottom is MountVolume 7336. This is when I use the "select device" button and choose the partition that has my operating system and files on it. Is that the correct one I should be trying to mount? I tried the "partition 0" which is the entire harddisk but it complains that I haven't selected a partition.
Thanks for the help!
Nevermind, I was able to mount the volume. I haden't enabled the "show password" option and I've been typing in the wrong password this morning since I switched keyboards (normally use a typematrix aligned one so was hitting the wrong key constantly).
At least now I can grab all the things that would be more painful to recover from my backup, and anything important is of course backed up alraedy so I'm good there. I'm just wondering if I messed things up by having fast-boot enabled, but otherwise I'm happy that I can access the drive again.
I think you encountered one of the Windows 10 patches that creates a new hidden partition called Recovery Partition of 450 MB by shrinking your C partition.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_install/recovery-partition-windows-10-build-49-put-on-a/9831ed4c-3331-4f10-9da3-34e6881a2f6f?auth=1
This may have caused the problem with your system:
If the patch resized your C partition which was encrypted, then VeraCrypt has the wrong bitmap size to mount the drive. That is strictly a guess on my part. The fact that you have the OS volume mounted as a secondary drive may prove that my guess is incorrect.
The developer may have more insight on this issue.
Do you see in the new Windows 10 install and before applying any patches the 450 MB Recovery Partition in Windows Disk Management?
I think Windows 10 installation will create the Recovery Partition and if it does not exist, the installation will shrink the C partition to create the space needed for the Recovery Partition. I think one or more Windows 10 patches will create the 450 MB partition by shrinking the C partition if it does not exist.
On my new "install" I actually ended up installing Windows 8.1 just because I had the dvd kicking around and I figured it would be faster than re-downloading Windows 10 just to get up and running.
I'm pretty sure I didn't have a "recovery" partition before, so you're probably right in that whatever patch I installed must have done something to my original partition (shrink it). This is probably what happened.
Thanks so much for your help! I've at least got everything back to normal now and didn't loose anything besides a bit of time.
I've run to this win 10 update thing too, but only for a data storage - not system partition. I had a batch file mounting up the drive - \device\harddisk0\partition5
After overnight win10 update finally I found that I have to modify it to \device\harddisk0\partition6 (number increased)... so it was working again, after the initial shock it caused to me!
Last edit: Gergely 2016-11-30
I have similar issue after installing windows 10 Creators update which I am running under Oracle VirtualBox. After installing the update and rebooting veracrypt says the password is invalid even though its 100% correct. Using rescue disk is no help as even with that it says wrong password. If I skip boot manager windows starts to load and up comes the windows options screen where I can choose to continue load to windows, use troubleshoot options, shutdown or use another opertion system. Nothing there really helps. Continue to load windows just comes up with veracrypt bootloader which keeps saying wrong password. What should I try?
As far as i know there is no way to install Creators update without decrypting the system drive. Try to hit ESC on boot. If he fails to install you shood be able to boot into windwos again with your password. Then you must decrypt the system and aply the Creators update and encrypt the system again.