Stuck between decryption and encryption

John Hoeks — Wed, 20 May 2026 04:58:16 -0000

So, there's practically nothing I can do?

Enigma2Illusion — Tue, 19 May 2026 20:09:02 -0000

Correct. When you are unable to mount the volume by VeraCrypt.

When unmounted, the data recovery software will read the encrypted unmounted volume as if it is dealing with data on an unencrypted drive/partition.

This leads to the data recovery software corrupting the VeraCrypt volume as it tried to guess patterns that it thinks is unencrypted data.

John Hoeks — Tue, 19 May 2026 19:10:58 -0000

Ok, thank you. So I shouldn't try with a data recovery software with this volume?

Enigma2Illusion — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:59:12 -0000

Sorry. I am out of ideas.

FYI: Do not run recovery tools against an unmounted VeraCrypt volume.

This will corrupt the VeraCrypt volume.

John Hoeks — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:41:17 -0000

Tried it but the error is the same, "The system cannot find the file specified".

Enigma2Illusion — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:28:24 -0000

Close VeraCrypt GUI.

Then right click on the VeraCrypt and select Run as Administrator to attempt to mount the disk partition manually.

John Hoeks — Tue, 19 May 2026 18:04:31 -0000

Yes, I try manually. Full drive path is "Device\Harddisk1\Partition1"

Enigma2Illusion — Tue, 19 May 2026 17:35:40 -0000

Are you manually mounting using the Select Device button?

What is the full drive path?

Example: \Device\Harddisk2\Partition1

John Hoeks — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:49:17 -0000

No, the error message is "The system cannot find the file specified. Source: MountVolume:8382"

Enigma2Illusion — Tue, 19 May 2026 16:17:24 -0000

Are you now able to mount the volume using either the primary header or the backup header (embedded header in the Mount Options)?

Recent posts to Forums