Can’t mount partition without drive letter set.

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Can’t mount partition without drive letter set.

Forum: Technical Topics

Creator: Anonymous

Created: 2015-03-15

Updated: 2015-03-16

Anonymous - 2015-03-15

Specs
Win 8.1
External usb hdd 2 tb MBR NTFS

Veracrypt is unable to mount the encrypted partition. I removed the letter of the drive in disk management. If I try to manually mount it, veracrypt doesn’t show any loading popup or anything.
Tried auto-mount which doesn’t work. It can’t find the disk. Mounting as a favorite doesn’t work either. Only way it works is if I give it a letter in disk management.

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Enigma2Illusion - 2015-03-15

Please provide the following information to help forum members and/or developer help troubleshoot this issue.

What version of VeraCrypt are you using?

What is the drive letter assigned in Disk Management in Windows?

Can you post screenshots of the Disk Management with the drive letter removed and VeraCrypt Device list?

Did you encrypt the partition of the disk (ex. \Device\Harddisk1\Partition1) or did you select encrypt device (ex. Harddisk 1)?

What drive letter did you attempt to mount in VeraCrypt?

What anti-virus/malware program(s) are you using?

Last edit: Enigma2Illusion 2015-03-15

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Anonymous - 2015-03-15

I’m using the latest version, 1.0f-1.

I’ve tried with different letters and the result is the same. It works with a letter, and when I remove it and reboot it doesn’t.

Only the partition is encrypted.

Tried mounting with different letters in Veracrypt and it doesn’t matter.
http://postimg.org/image/dfp73w6h3/
http://postimg.org/image/9tjdr903r/

After some more testing it seems the problem might be that after reboot windows doesn’t recognize the file system of the encrypted partition.

I assign a letter in disk management. Any letter. The file system will be marked as raw. http://postimg.org/image/v17am59cj/
Everything works as normal in Veracrypt. I can manually mount and auto-mount.

After I remove it will still show as raw.
http://postimg.org/image/ydzyfpvpj/
Everything still works as normal in Veracrypt. I can manually mount and auto-mount.

I reboot windows.

Windows no longer recognizes the file system.
http://postimg.org/image/jpkgqw5vr/

Nothing works. Can’t manually nor auto-mount it. When I try to manually it doesn’t give any feedback that it can’t find it/wrong password. Nothing happens.

I assign a drive letter in disk management and everything works again.
When I remove it still works, but after reboot it will not.
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Anonymous - 2015-03-15

Edit: If I disconnect the drive from usb and reconnect it, the result will be the same as a reboot. Windows doesn't recognize the file system.

I'm using ESET NOD32 Antivirus.

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Enigma2Illusion - 2015-03-15

Thank you for detailed information.

I am seeing two problems. The first is Windows having a drive letter assigned and the second is after a reboot without a drive letter Windows does not know the filesystem format of the drive.

Please provide details how you encrypted the partition.

Did you perform a in-place encryption or format NTFS encryption (destroys existing data)?

Is this a new disk drive without any data and was the partition formatted NTFS prior to encrypting?

I am thinking that if this was a new/unused device. Windows needed to initialize the disk and a quick format with NTFS of the partition. NOTE: Any data will be lost! See link below.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1968187/installed-seconded-hard-drive-1tb-showing-windows-pro.html

Afterwards, you can remove the drive letter and reboot to confirm drive letter is not assigned by Windows before proceeding to encrypting the partition. For testing purposes, you can perform quick format during the encryption. Once completed, reboot to determine if Windows still sees the partition as RAW without mounting in VeraCrypt.

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Anonymous - 2015-03-16

It seems to be a problem on my PC. Tried on two different comps where if I disconnect or restart windows without a drive letter, the filesystem is still identified as raw. And it works.

Nonetheless it's apparent that Veracrypt won't work if the filesystem is undefined/blank in Windows.

In answer to your questions,

I did perform a format NTFS encryption and it was without data priot to that.

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Enigma2Illusion - 2015-03-16

Thank you for the update that this same drive's filesystem shows as RAW on two other computers when the drive letter is removed even after the reboot.

Please post back your resolution to help others that have same problem in the future.

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- uti michael - 2017-10-31
  
  hello so i deferred decryption then restarted system but my system wont boot tried decrypting twice but still no show tried mounting using veracrypt on my system booting with linux but it gives (The process t encryption of the partition/drive has not been completed. It must be completed first) even after decrypting twice i dont want to loose my files please any help and i also deleted my efi 100mb partition a recomendation from someone which made my system unbootable but i guess if i can decrypt then i can fix with startup repair
  
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