Aborted decryption on non-system partition leads to inability to access data

[Doug]

A colleague was attempting to decrypt a non-system partition. The did the following:

1. Click on the partition E: (with the volume information)
2. Select Devices...
3. Click on Volume Tools... and click on 'Permanently Decrypt', and waited

They thought nothing was happening (or nothing appeared to be happening) and so they forced VeraCrypt to close. After reopening VeraCrypt they attempted to decrypt again or tried to mount but either resulted in an error.

Is there any hope of recovery? The person my colleague was attempting to perform the decryption for does not have a recent backup.

If I can provide additional information, please ask and I will try to obtain it from my colleague.

Thanks!

[Kurt Fitzner]

What version of VeraCrypt is this? When you attempted to decrypt the partition, was it mounted?

You can try to mount the partition using the backup header. Select the device, then mount and click the mount options button and check "use backup header".

[Doug]

Thanks Kurt for the response.

I need to check on the version with my colleague but he did indicate that when he attempted the decryption the partition was not mounted at the time.

I will suggest to him to try and mount using the backup header option.

[Doug]

Okay. I connected in using TeamViewer to the user's computer this morning. I'm not sure if the actual issue was whether my colleague was not specifying a PIM or if it was the fact that I used the backup header to mount but I did successfully get it mounted and I having the user backup all his data before I do anything else.

By the way, it was VeraCrypt 1.23 and the error that I got (at least until corrected the PIM) was "MountVolume: 8299".

Anyway, I think this issue is resolved now. Thanks for the advice.