Can I recover lost TrueCrypt container?
February 15, 2016 8:56 AM   Subscribe

Had to do a factory reset of my PC. All of my data was supposed to be backed up by Dell DataSafe (and mostly was) but my TrueCrypt containers are missing. Is there anyway to recover them?

I had several TrueCrypt containers (I know, I know, but this was for personal writings and stuff, not financial records) that didn't show up when I reloaded my backed up data with Dell DataSafe after doing a factory reset of my computer. I have searched the whole computer for *.tc files and nothing is coming up. Also ran Recuva, which did not find any .tc files. Are these gone forever? Why did this happen?
posted by jimmysmits to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)
 
Best answer:
Why did this happen?
Tough to say. I don't know what a "factory reset" entails, but if it involves a "low level format" (i.e. zeroing the disk before partitioning/formatting) then you're SOL.

You can't recover data that's been overwritten. But if the "factory reset" that you're referring to didn't zero the drive, then the data *may* be recoverable, provided the blocks on which it was stored haven't been used by something.

However, my guess is that since the restore probably copied over a pre-baked disk image from somewhere most if not all of the drive did get overwritten... in which case recovery software can't help you.

And even if it could, encrypted data is usually more vulnerable to corruption than it might otherwise be (explaining why would be a little too complex for this post, but suffice to say that it's a property of the way that most encryption schemes work.) So my guess is that even if, say, 50% of the blocks in your containers were still recoverable, you'd have a tough time getting usable data from them.

Not the best news, I know...

Going forward, remember to test/audit your backups on a regular basis! A backup that's never checked for accuracy/completeness might as well not exist because Murphey's Law dictates that the file that you need the most will be the one that was skipped/corrupted/destroyed by a random cosmic ray from a strange planet at the precise moment that it's worst for you.
posted by -1 at 9:08 AM on February 15, 2016


Only speculating because of lack of direct experience with Dell DataSafe but going by their FAQ page (emphasis mine):
Backup profiles save the scheduling information and the configuration information for a File and Folder Backup. This includes the type of backup to be made, the types of files to be backed up and the destination of the backup.
My guess answer for why this happened is that in your profile .tc files were not one of the file types configured to be backed up, so DataSafe simply ignored them.
posted by Bangaioh at 3:34 PM on February 15, 2016


Are you positive they were called something.tc? That's not a requirement.
posted by alexei at 12:12 PM on February 16, 2016


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