Windows update means laptop is trying to boot into Windows so Veracrypt password screen doesnt appear

[Simon Tedeschi]

Hi, does anyone know how to get to the login screen? My mum's computer is trying to boot into Windows but the drive is encrypted. From the FAQs, the best I could get is to mount the disk but I think thats only for portable drives from within your OS?

[Mounir IDRASSI]

the easiest way is too go to the BIOS menu of the computer (e.g by pressing F2 just after power on) and then look for the boot menu and from there force the boot on VeraCrypt bootloader.
The exact steps depends on the computer model but the above is the working procedure.
The important point is that there is no need to decrypt the drive or mount it on other machine.

[Simon Tedeschi]

Thanks, I cant select a partition for boot. Its a Toshiba L50, the only boot options are HDD, ODD, USB, and LAN. I cant select an individual partition, which is annoying. Does that mean if I could boot into a partition, Veracrypt would be an option?

[Mounir IDRASSI]

I'm not acustomed with Toshiba BIOS but usually there is place in the BIOS settings where you can see a list of bootloader entries that included Windows explcitely. From you description, the boot menu you are mentionning is just for type of boot not boot details, so it may not help. What happens when you select HD?
Maybe there is an advances mode in the BIOS that allows have more control. Did you check this?

I don't know if someone in the forum knows more about such BIOS but it can help if you post screenshots of differnt BIOS menu and windows to see how it looks and maybe give hints about what to do.

By the way, I guess you don't have VeraCrypt Rescue Disk because if you have it you could just boot on VeraCrypt using it. If we don't find a solution using BIOS, then the next method will be to boot computer on a Live Linux disk and then extract Rescue Disk from Windows partition using the Linux version of VeraCrypt.

[Simon Tedeschi]

Ive tried F2 and F12, one you can select which type of boot into, the other lets you order the boot type. The Toshiba boot menu is customised, I will attach screenshots soon. Thanks for the linux live disk idea, is there another way to get the Rescue Disk, as the partition isnt currently accessable.

[Mounir IDRASSI]

I'm attaching a zip for a generic VeraCrypt Rescue Disk. It has all functions exeption the ability to restore volume header for system partition. You can use it to create a bootable USB drive for VeraCrypt Rescue Disk: just prepare a FAT32 formatted USB key and then extract the content of the zip in it so that the "EFI" folder is at the root of the USB key filesystem.

Once you have booted the computer on the Rescue Disk, you will see a textual menu and there you should select the option 'v' ("Boot VeraCrypt loader from rescue disk"). If it doesn't work, you can first use the option 'r' ("Restore VeraCrypt loader binaries to system disk") and then use the option 'v' ("Boot VeraCrypt loader from rescue disk").