2 letters mounted for 1 volume only ???

[Yves Charrazac]

Hi,
I was using TRUECRYPT to encrypt a full volume (partition) of an internal hard drive.
The partition had no drive letter and TRUECRYT assigned it the letter E: once mounted. Everything worked well.
I switched to VERACRYPT by modifying the password as planned in the migration procedure from TRUECRYPT to VERACRYPT.
Now I have the following problem:
- when I turn up the volume on the letter E: it appears well in the My Computer.
- but in parallel, there is also another drive letter L: which points to the same volume.
- some applications like ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE do not see the letter E: but rather the letter L:
- I cannot share the E: drive on the network because WINDOWS 10 tells me that this letter is not affected. By cons I can share L:
- the mounting of the letter L: on my volume does not appear in the main window of VERACRYPT. The letter L: also does not appear as available. The volume mount on the letter E: appears correctly.

I have recreated the volume encryption several times with VERACRYPT directly but the problem remains.
An idea of the problem ?

[Adrian Kentleton]

Have you tried looking in Windows Disk Management (Run > diskmgmt.msc) to see if your encrypted partition shows up (as RAW), with the drive letter Lallocated to it? If so, have you tried removing that allocation? If so, does that solve the issue?

[Yves Charrazac]

Of course, my RAW partition in witch I create the crypted volume has NEVER a letter allocated for do not have this problem. It's why I don't understand why I have this problem with VERACRYPT on my desktop PC and not with TRUECRYPT with the same process of creation.
On the other hand, on my laptop which is configured in the same way as my desktop PC, everything worked perfectly without any problem. The transition TRUECRYPT => VERACRYPT worked perfectly and I have no problem with duplicate letters.
I would therefore have liked to know if other people had had a similar problem.
For now, I returned to TrueCrypt on my desktop PC without problems, and I left VERACRUPT on my laptop.
Thank you for your reply.

[Enigma2Illusion]

This is an issue that has occurred in the past with issues in the Windows registry that needs cleaning-up.

To avoid manually editing the registry, you can use the DriveCleanup utility below to remove all currently non present USB Storage Devices, Disks, CDROMs, Floppies, Storage Volumes and WPD devices from the device tree. Furthermore it removes orphaned registry items related to these device types.

• Dismount all VeraCrypt volumes.
• Create a directory and unzip the DriveCleanup files into the directory.
• Start a command line prompt as Administrator.
• In the command window, change into the directory where you unzipped the files. If you are using 64-bit Windows OS, change into x64 subdirectory.

.
Use the following command to see what the DriveCleanup utility will remove from the registry:
drivecleanup -T

To remove items from the registry:
drivecleanup

Reboot PC after running utility.

You will need to remove the Windows drive letter assignment to any unmounted VeraCrypt encrypted partitions/drives after reboot. Do NOT click to format when Windows prompts you.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html

[Yves Charrazac]

Thank you for your help.
So I ran Drivecleanup after dismounting the encrypted volume.
Then I rebooted.
But the problem remains.
Here are some screenshots to explain.
At present, the volume mounted under the letter E: is a TRUECRYPT volume. If I mount it with TRUECRYPT, there is NO problem with duplicate letters.
If I mount it with VERACRYPT (in TRUECRYPT mode) the problem appears immediately.

[Enigma2Illusion]

When you are mounting using TrueCrypt software, are you manually mounting the volume or using Favorites to mount the volume?

What happens when you dismount all volumes, run DriveCleanup, reboot, then mount using VeraCrypt in TrueCrypt mode first before using TrueCrypt software?

[Yves Charrazac]

For the tests, I select in the window of TRUECRYPT or VERACRYPT the letter E: then I click on "Automatic mount".

For the 2nd question, this is what I did:
- disassembly of the volume E: (the only one mounted)
- execution of Drivecleanup
- rebooting
- manual mounting on the letter E: via VERACRYPT with the button "Automatic mounting" and the Truecrypt mode checked.

[Enigma2Illusion]

Are you running the DriveCleanup in the command window as the Windows administrator account?

[Yves Charrazac]

Yes of course : Windows Powershell (admin)

[Enigma2Illusion]

The only other idea I have is to try mounting manually without using "Auto-Mount Devices" button. Click the Mount button instead.

[Yves Charrazac]

Something crazy: I tried with manual mount and there it's OK.
So, I tried again with automatic mount...
... and now it works correctly !!!!! No more duplicate letters!
So I transformed my TRUECRYPT volume into VERACRYPT by modifying the password and everything continues to work well.
I finally put back the mount by command line in a batch launched by the scheduler of tasks (that allows me to make a "net use" to share the volume E: on the network at the starting of my desktop PC) and everything still works!
So, I don't know why I had this problem. It's frustrating. (A frustration that I know well after 35 years of professional IT !!!)
In fact, the only configuration that changed yesterday was the deletion of my BROTHER printer connected to my desktop PC by USB and which included a flash card reader that took a letter from the USB device when the PC started. As she dropped me, I replaced her yesterday with another BROTHER who does not have a card reader ... ??? Is that it ? I do not know.
In short, my problem seems solved (I remain cautious) for the moment.
Thank you for your help.