Lost Truecrypt Partition after using Eraser...

[harald0815]

Hi,

following facts:

- Windows 7 64bit
- Eraser 6.06
- System Partition C:\ 120GB
- Complete Truecrypt encrypted Partition D:\ 165GB

Running steps:

- Run "Erase unused Space" on C:\
- Erase finished
- Reboot Notebook
- Partition D:\ is not longer listet in Explorer.
- Under "Computer Management" are now 165GB unallocated Disk space.
- All my more or less important Data is lost.

I do not understand why this happened....
Can someone tell my why this happened?

This is not my day..... :cry:

 

[DavidHB]

First, if you really are using Eraser 6.0.6 (check Help|About; the Scheduler window gives the wrong version information), you should upgrade to Eraser 6.0.7. But not yet ...

I don't use Truecrypt, but I imagine that it contains its pseudo-partition in some sort of file system object. You will need to check the Truecrypt documentation (or the forum) for the name of this file, then check with a file recovery program (such as Recuva) whether the file is recoverable. If all that has happened is that the MFT entry for the file has been cleared, recovery may be possible. If you have no file recovery program already installed, don't install one on the C: drive; you may overwrite the data you are trying to recover. In such a case, if the data is really valuable and you have no backup, the only safe way to proceed is to remove the drive from the computer, mount it in a caddy, connect it as a non system drive to another machine, and run the recovery program there.

Eraser has been carefully designed not to touch 'unusual' file system objects such as reparse points; what I don't know is whether the Truecrypt file is so non-standard that the OS thinks it is free space, in which case Eraser will (understandably enough) wipe it. That would be something to ask on the Truecrypt forum. Folk there may also know how to recover a 'missing' Truecrypt partition.

I can think of other possibilities, but am reluctant to suggest them in case you wind up overwriting your data. I'm sorry I cannot be of more help.

David

 

[Joel]

It sounds as though you just dismounted your TrueCrypt partition. It dismounts automatically at every shut down... Just open TrueCrypt and remount the partition.