Background:
I do monthly backups of my (veracrypted) drive but only now did I have to actually use it and I realized that when this program is backing up the disk, it is doing so while Veracrypt is decrypting it on the fly like it would for any other program used live from the OS. So what really gets backed up is the unencrypted disk.
I restored my OS from such backup and as you can guess, the Veracrypt bootloader was still there but of course I didn't have to type a password, just press ESC and get right in. So I tried to re-encrypt my system drive with Veracrypt which warned me that the bootloader already exists and warned of severe consequences if I proceeded, but I did so anyway. Right when the boot test part was supposed to happen, an error message popped up and it refused to restart the system. I restarted manually and I was now unable to log in. ESC didn't work and typing in the password just hanged on the "length 0 - 200000000000 success" message.
Removing the Veracrypt bootloader via the rescue disk failed without an error message. I could not get into my system, so I booted via the Windows USB, deleted and recreated the EFI partition which finally removed the Veracypt bootloader and allowed me to boot into the OS. Then right after I logged in and checked the EFI partition with a hex editor, the Veracrypt bootloader was back.
Why is this happening? Can you make it stop so I can re-encrypt my system disk?
I just tried again, here are the error messages so they are on the record before my system becomes unbootable.
---------------------------
CAUTION: The VeraCrypt Boot Loader is already installed on your system drive!
VeraCrypt Volume Creation Wizard
It is possible that another system on your computer is already encrypted.
WARNING: PROCEEDING WITH ENCRYPTION OF THE CURRENTLY RUNNING SYSTEM MAY MAKE OTHER SYSTEM(S) IMPOSSIBLE TO START AND RELATED DATA INACCESSIBLE.
Are you sure you want to continue?
Yes No
VeraCrypt Volume Creation Wizard
The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.
Source: VeraCrypt::BootEncryption::RegisterSystemFavoritesService:4868
OK
VeraCrypt Volume Creation Wizard
Cannot initiate the system encryption pretest.
OK
Background:
I do monthly backups of my (veracrypted) drive but only now did I have to actually use it and I realized that when this program is backing up the disk, it is doing so while Veracrypt is decrypting it on the fly like it would for any other program used live from the OS. So what really gets backed up is the unencrypted disk.
I restored my OS from such backup and as you can guess, the Veracrypt bootloader was still there but of course I didn't have to type a password, just press ESC and get right in. So I tried to re-encrypt my system drive with Veracrypt which warned me that the bootloader already exists and warned of severe consequences if I proceeded, but I did so anyway. Right when the boot test part was supposed to happen, an error message popped up and it refused to restart the system. I restarted manually and I was now unable to log in. ESC didn't work and typing in the password just hanged on the "length 0 - 200000000000 success" message.
Removing the Veracrypt bootloader via the rescue disk failed without an error message. I could not get into my system, so I booted via the Windows USB, deleted and recreated the EFI partition which finally removed the Veracypt bootloader and allowed me to boot into the OS. Then right after I logged in and checked the EFI partition with a hex editor, the Veracrypt bootloader was back.
Why is this happening? Can you make it stop so I can re-encrypt my system disk?
Last edit: Kip 2025-09-13
Update, I uninstalled Veracrypt, restarted, installed x.24 (I had x.20) and tried again and it worked.
Last edit: Kip 2025-09-13