Windows doesn't recognize Veracrypt (1.22) volumes
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About 2 weeks ago my computer was copying a large amount of data during the night to 2 disks I had in a USB 3.0 docking station under Windows 8.1 Pro. When I viewed the result in the morning the copy processes were aborted (Total Commander 8.51ß1). I tried to start them again but the SSD (Samsung 850 Evo 1 TB) and the HDD (WD30EURS, 3 TB GPT) were not recognized by Windows 8.1. I restarted the computer, both system favorites were mounted without error during boot up but still Windows didn't reconize the disks. Veracrypt is listing them as usual. Meanwhile I've tried to access the drives on another computer using Windows 10 Pro in another docking station with the same result. The disk management of both Windows versions list them as "RAW", Veracrypt says "everything okay!"
The SSD is my "working drive". I have copies of all data but unfortunately I was rearranging them while the error happend. It would cost a lot of time to sort out which work had already been done and which not. I need at least to read the directories. I tried to restore the headers from the SSD with the veracrypt tool but it didn't help. Is there any chance to get the data back?
wafranyofl
Last edit: wafranyofl 2018-09-09
It is normal for Windows to see VeraCrypt drives/partitions as RAW. This is because Windows cannot recognize the filesystem due to the encryption.
See this thread and referencing threads:
https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/general/thread/e7127beb/#9068
I know that. But the device is mounted with a drive letter, Veracrypt confirms it and Windows shows it. As soon as I try to access the drive Windows keeps telling me I have to format it before I can use it. Of course I didn't follow this advice.
If one of the drives wasn't readable for Windows I'd say the data on it was corrupted. But that this happens to two drives at the same time seems rather unlikely. Therefore I think the data might be still alright and "only" the volume headers are damaged. I'd decrypt the whole SSD drive as it is but that bears the risk that I definitely destroy all data that might be still readable now.
I'm not new to Veracrypt and used Truecrypt before it. At the moment 've got 16 encrypted disks here in 2 PCs, system and data disks (auto mounted as system favorites). And I don't think it has something to do with memory usage. This PC, on which the error while copying occured, has 32 GB of memory. With 7 encrypted disks in it, all mounted, the memory usage is 2,6% actually.
wafranyofl
NOTE: The following procedures will perform writes to the source drive.
Try logging-in as the Administrator, open the VeraCrypt GUI, right click on the mounted volume to select repair filesystem option.
If that fails, the only other idea I can offer is with the volume mounted in VeraCrypt, try using data recovery tools like R-Studio, TestDisk or EaseUS Data Recovery.
Free versions may have limitations on file scans and/or size.
I'll give it a try. Thanks!
wafranyofl
PS: That's Windows' "checkdisk" - doesn't work.
Last edit: wafranyofl 2018-09-10