Need some help with an external encryption issue

[SleepingSheepie]

Good day to you all.

I received a transcend external hard drive from a client that apparently didnt work. I was told to see if it works and if that is the case format the drive and return it.

Received the drive and it worked without a problem. Proceeded to format and return it.


Now here it comes. Received a call from client the drive I received is the wrong one and all their work is on that drive I formatted.


I Proceeded to do data recovery and to my luck everything is recovered but what I didn't know is at some point the drive was encrypted and I cant copy the files back onto the drive.

Cant even get drive formatted again. I used transcend elite to see if I cant un encrypt the drive but also no go. 3rd party software also a no go. Using Cmd method no go.

Software I tried was

aomei partition assistant professional.

I also tried easeus partition master.
 

I do not have an idea as to what was used to encrypt the drive. Common sense told me it would probably be the default transcend software but at this point it seems not to be the case. I cant access the drive with transcend elite software either. Im however sure its not bitlocker.

 

Drive at this moment is showing me 931gb empty space. 125mb used.


Seems like a clean drive in all respects untill you try and copy something to it.


Error


Disk is write protected.


Client is a 77 year old and not to clued up on these things also doesn't know if/how it was encrypted or not.

 

 

Anyone got some advice for me on how I can get the drive working?

 

 

 

 

[Levent]

If you managed to recover the data, I would contact the customer and let them know this drive is unusable without knowing how they encrypted or what they did to the drive. Otherwise getting a new USB drive and copying the contents are the only valid option I can think of.

[SleepingSheepie]

Im honestly worried about how this will affect my reputation in our super small town if I give the unusable drive back. Im one of two people in town doing computers part time as a means of extra income. 

[SleepingSheepie]

Good news boys. Got the external working. Tried disk drill and it was able to delete partition and let me format it. Copying files to it now.

Disk Drill for the win.

Thanks for all the help guys.