Jeroen Tielen » decrypt http://www.jeroentielen.nl I deliver Virtual Workspaces since 1995. Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:53:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 TrueCrypt and reinstalling Windows http://www.jeroentielen.nl/truecrypt-and-reinstalling-windows/ http://www.jeroentielen.nl/truecrypt-and-reinstalling-windows/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:06:39 +0000 Jeroen Tielen http://www.jeroentielen.nl/truecrypt-and-reinstalling-windows/ I’m using TrueCrypt for a while now, and like any other nerd Knipogende emoticon I’m reinstalling my pc on a regular basis. And there comes the problem. Because TrueCrypt has encrypted the whole disk, I have to enter the password when the computer boots from HDD. When booting from DVD de HDD is still encrypted and the only way to install Windows is to wipe the HDD (repartition and format). I have a second partition (D Drive) with my data. So when reinstalling Windows I only have to format the first partition (C Drive). You get the problem??? Knipogende emoticon

The solution is to encrypt only the second partition (D Drive). But the problem then is that my important documents are back upped to the cloud (a DropBox construction) and the agent, responsible for that, is started at boot. When I’m to late entering the password for TrueCrypt password the agent gives an error. But reinstalling Windows is easy Knipogende emoticon

Anyone else who have the same problems? Comments are welcome…

Update:

Oke, time to do some research/”trial on error” about reinstalling Windows…

I have 1 partition with Windows installed, and 1 partition with aprox 40GB data. Both on the same harddisk. The data partition is encrypted with TrueCrypt. I have the recovery disc. When booted from the Windows 7 installation DVD, I can see both the partitions but the encrypted partition is empty (100% free disk space). I choose the Windows partition, format and install…. wait….. After installing the first thing I did was installing TrueCrypt. Then mounted the data partition and all the data was not accessible. I rebooted the computer with the recovery disc, choose F8 (repair options) and then 1 (Permanently decrypt system partition/drive). Type the password and…. “Incorrect Password” WTF…. Oke, option 3 (Restore key data). Modify drive 0? YES Please Knipogende emoticon…. Header restored…Rebooting Windows… Data still not accessible. Damn this is getting frustrating… Rebooting again with the recovery disc. Choose F8 and the option 1. Type in the password… There is a warning that this is much faster in Windows. But I’m not able te decrypt the data partition only in Windows Bedroefde emoticon So I select YES. My laptop is doing around 7MB/s and the HardDisk is 150GB…So it’s time to eat, watch The A-Team etc.. The next morning the decryption was ready. All the data is now available. Not an option for me. Reinstalling takes a verry long time so.

Conclusion.. Before you reinstall Windows on a TrueCrypt protected partition/disk, first copy the data to an USB disk. Then install Windows, Encrypt the partitions en copy back the data.

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