Veracrypt issue (drive letter)
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Hello,
Really curious issue with Veracrypt and Windows 10.
I use two encrypted USB disks that I always open with Veracrypt with the same drive letters P and Q because I use these same letters with a synchronization software (to synchronize these two disks). So I don't want to change these letters in order to keep the same saved rules.
But here's what happened:
When you open Veracrypt, you can choose among a number of letters to mount a volume. As usual, I see the letters P and Q. But when I connect one of the disks via USB, P instantly disappears from the Veracrypt list. The same goes for the other disk, which makes Q disappear when connected.
As I use Veracrypt portable, I downloaded a new Veracrypt to try it out and th
e problem remains the same!
Restarting the software or the PC and refreshing the letters in Veracrypt changes nothing.
Does anyone know the source of the issue and, more especially, what the solution is ?
Thank you
From your description, it appears that Windows is automatically assigning the P and Q drive letters to your inserted USB disks. Can you confirm by checking Windows Explorer if these drive letters (P: and Q:) are visible after inserting the disks?
I cannot answer on why Windows may be behaving differently now but you can reclaim the P: and Q: drive letters by using Windows Disk Management:
Access Disk Management:
Change Drive Letters:
Please note that this operation requires elevated privileges, so you'll encounter a UAC prompt asking for permission.
Ideally, there should be a way to prevent Windows from automatically using P: and Q: for new devices but I'm not aware of a way to do it. Maybe others on this forums can help more on this.
Hello,
Thank you very much for your reply. But I think there's been a little misunderstanding. I'm perfectly familiar with Windows disk management, which lets you change drive letters. This is not the problem.
Let me repeat:
When you open Veracrypt before connecting a USB device to the PC, the Veracrypt window will display all the letters not yet occupied on your PC. In my case, 17 letters (including P and Q).
Then you choose one of these letters to mount (open) an encrypted file. So if, for example, I want to open one of my two USB external HDD (and if an automatic launch has not been configured in Veracrypt) and if I want to assign the letter P to the mounted drive (this is not the same thing as the letter of the USB drive in Windows Explorer !), I'll plug in the disk and then click in the Veracrypt window on P, then "select file", then clic on "mount", then enter the password and the decrypted contents will be displayed in Windows Explorer on the letter P.
However, as I explained, I'm blocked for a totally incomprehensible reason because as soon as I plug this USB disk into the PC, the letter P instantly disappears from the Veracrypt screen list. So I can't continue with the above steps.
The same thing happens with my second USB disk, which I want to mount using the Veracrypt letter Q.
I should point out, however, that these two drives are perfectly visible in Windows Explorer, obviously under letters other than P and Q. ** P and Q are therefore only the letters of the virtual drives in which the files mounted by Veracrypt should open.**
As a result, Windows disk management doesn't seem to be of any use.
As already explained, I want to mount these two USB Hdd in P and Q because these are the letters referred to in the rules of my synchronization software. So I don't want to change.
I hope I've made myself clearer.
Thank you for your assistance !
Alan
Hi Alan,
Typically this can be caused by entries left in the Windows registry.
If you are willing to 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 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.
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/drivecleanup.zip
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/drivetools_e.html
Last edit: Enigma2Illusion 2023-08-07
Hello,
I have a similar problem.
I have used TrueCrypt until now up to Win10. Now I run into a update problem with an other Notebook, and I'm not sure if this problem is caused by TrueCrypt. So I desided to give VeraCrypt a chance.
I have another laptop completely rebuilt with windows 10, with system encryption. There are 2 additional partitions (one on the same SSD and one on a second SSD) which should be mounted as drives D and E if needed. Since these are synchronized with a NAS, the drive letters must be correct. For this purpose I have defined these drives as favorites.
Now it seems that VC seems to ignore this definition. See attached screenshot.
It is not always so, sometimes other drive letters are used (e.g. E and H).
I use the option "Mount Favorite Volumes" from the taskbar symbol.
Additionally I use the tool USBDLM from Uwe Sieber to prevent USB devices from using the drive letters C and D.
(The problem already existed before I installed USBDLM)
Does anyone have an idea why this happens?
Thankyou
Johnny
Last edit: Johnny Swiss 2023-08-13
@johnnyswiss
Can you post a screenshot of your VeraCrypt Preferences settings?
Hello Johnny and Enigma,
Sorry for the late reply but I was on vacation.
You've both given some very interesting solutions that will certainly come in useful one day. On my side, I didn't get any results but I tried to restore the system with an image I had saved. And everything's working again !
I remind that I'm using the portable version of VC and that even with a newly downloaded clean VC, the problem was the same.
So logically, it was my PC that was responsible and absolutely not Veracrypt. However, I'll never know what happened ...
Anyway, thank you very much for your help !
Yes, I can
@johnnyswiss
Thank you for the Preferences screenshot. I do not see any conflicts with the Favorites.
You could perform the tasks I provided above to clear the Windows registry of the drive entries to see if that resolves the issue.
Another idea after running the drivecleanup utility is to drop/add the volumes in your favorites with the labels.
If the above fails to resolve the issue, try uninstalling the USBDLM software, reboot, run cleanup, reboot then drop/add favorites.
Thanks for the replies, no I have not tried this, as I have reinstalled Win and there should be no legacy issues. I will try this and see if it solves the problem.