I've been running Veracrypt on my laptop for a while now, encrypting my 500GB SSD drive that includes only my Windows 10 system and data partitions.
Recently I returned home to find Windows frozen apart from the cursor which was able to move around but unable to click on anything. After cold rebooting, Windows was unable to start and, fter dropping to the command-line from the troublshooting menus, the drives were showing as RAW.
I decided to permanently decrypt the system drive from the Veracrypt rescue disk before attemting any more troubleshooting. Unfortunately the decryption process is so slow (approx 250 k/sec that I worked out it would take the best part of a month before it would finish decrypting and I can start troubleshooting in earnest. It actually started running a LOT more quickly but discovered a bad sector and when I elected to "skip bad sectors", then it started to run at that slow speed. (Choosing no at that option just defers the decryption and does nothing)
Does anybody know of any other possible ways of doing this that would involve getting things done faster? The data on the disk is fairly important so rebuild and lose all the data is not so much of an option
Thanks in advance
N
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
The symptoms you are describing (slowness and RAW disk) are typical of a hardware failure. This is confirmed by the rescue disk that found bad sector.
Actually in your case what slows things is the drive itself, not the rescue disk. Even if decryption of system partitions was implemented on Windows (which is planned), you will not get faster decryption rate.
The best solution for you now is to connect your failing disk to another machine and then mount it using VeraCrypt by enabling the mount option "Mount partition using system encryption without pre-boot authentication" as shown in the screenshot below. I also advice you to check "Mount volume as read-only" to ensure that Windows will not write anything that corrupt your data.
Does this work for you?
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I am experiencing 100% the same problem with my 500GB sdd drive.
My PC froze except for the mouse cursor so I restarted the computer and then windows would no longer load. Even the VeraCrypt bootloader was no longer present so I used the rescue disk to restore it. Then everytime I would enter my password it would say incorrect, so I used the rescue disk to restore the key data. That worked so I used the rescue disk to permanently decrypt the system partition/drive. But it is so slow! It decrypts about 20GB every 12 hours. At that rate it will take well over 10 days to decrypt the drive.
So I followed the instructions from Mounir and installed the drive on another PC, but when I try and mount it I get a "no partition found" message and when I go into Disk Management I can see it there as unnallocated and it wants me to initialize the drive, meaning I would lose all data on the drive.
So I restarted the decryption through the rescue disk and I guess I will have to be 10 days or more without a computer as it slowly decrypts.
Did you ever manage to find a solution? Did the full decryption work for you? Did it speed up at a certain point?
Thanks for sharing any info you have that could help guide me in the right direction.
Cheers!!
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Rescue disk works in BIOS legacy mode. The mode is 16 bit and one thread. In addition to slow CPU mode it uses BIOS R/W. It is slow also. So the result is very slow.
To avoid slow decryption it is better to decrypt on other computer or OS. We are working to solve the problem
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Hi
I've been running Veracrypt on my laptop for a while now, encrypting my 500GB SSD drive that includes only my Windows 10 system and data partitions.
Recently I returned home to find Windows frozen apart from the cursor which was able to move around but unable to click on anything. After cold rebooting, Windows was unable to start and, fter dropping to the command-line from the troublshooting menus, the drives were showing as RAW.
I decided to permanently decrypt the system drive from the Veracrypt rescue disk before attemting any more troubleshooting. Unfortunately the decryption process is so slow (approx 250 k/sec that I worked out it would take the best part of a month before it would finish decrypting and I can start troubleshooting in earnest. It actually started running a LOT more quickly but discovered a bad sector and when I elected to "skip bad sectors", then it started to run at that slow speed. (Choosing no at that option just defers the decryption and does nothing)
Does anybody know of any other possible ways of doing this that would involve getting things done faster? The data on the disk is fairly important so rebuild and lose all the data is not so much of an option
Thanks in advance
N
Hi,
The symptoms you are describing (slowness and RAW disk) are typical of a hardware failure. This is confirmed by the rescue disk that found bad sector.
Actually in your case what slows things is the drive itself, not the rescue disk. Even if decryption of system partitions was implemented on Windows (which is planned), you will not get faster decryption rate.
The best solution for you now is to connect your failing disk to another machine and then mount it using VeraCrypt by enabling the mount option "Mount partition using system encryption without pre-boot authentication" as shown in the screenshot below. I also advice you to check "Mount volume as read-only" to ensure that Windows will not write anything that corrupt your data.
Does this work for you?
Hi
First off thanks for the reply and sorry for my own slow response.
I tried your suggestion but get an error about it needing to be encryped first?!
Not really sure I understand as it has been busy decrypting (increasingly slowly so it seems)
This occurs when I try to mount each of the two partitions
many thanks
I am experiencing 100% the same problem with my 500GB sdd drive.
My PC froze except for the mouse cursor so I restarted the computer and then windows would no longer load. Even the VeraCrypt bootloader was no longer present so I used the rescue disk to restore it. Then everytime I would enter my password it would say incorrect, so I used the rescue disk to restore the key data. That worked so I used the rescue disk to permanently decrypt the system partition/drive. But it is so slow! It decrypts about 20GB every 12 hours. At that rate it will take well over 10 days to decrypt the drive.
So I followed the instructions from Mounir and installed the drive on another PC, but when I try and mount it I get a "no partition found" message and when I go into Disk Management I can see it there as unnallocated and it wants me to initialize the drive, meaning I would lose all data on the drive.
So I restarted the decryption through the rescue disk and I guess I will have to be 10 days or more without a computer as it slowly decrypts.
Did you ever manage to find a solution? Did the full decryption work for you? Did it speed up at a certain point?
Thanks for sharing any info you have that could help guide me in the right direction.
Cheers!!
Hi
Rescue disk works in BIOS legacy mode. The mode is 16 bit and one thread. In addition to slow CPU mode it uses BIOS R/W. It is slow also. So the result is very slow.
To avoid slow decryption it is better to decrypt on other computer or OS. We are working to solve the problem
Has there been any progress regarding this issue? Thank you.
what is the next step after the drive is decrypted?