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Okay so I managed to get my data back. 

 

I'll be explaining what happened. So basically, I have my mass storage device (WD Green 2TB) partitioned 3 times. One for Linux, one for Windows, and one for Mac. The issue is when things went wrong with the mac partition. Storing all 3 partitions on the same drive isn't the problem. Things went wrong when I was encrypting the Mac partition. The way that I encrypted the Mac partition was right clicking on the drive in OS X and selecting the encrypt option. (Basically the default method for encrypting something in OS X as far as I know. ) It successfully encrypted the partition. However, doing so, I was unable to access my Windows and Linux partitions when I rebooted back into the Windows and Linux operating systems. I thought that I had lost all of my data because the encrypting process was taking such a long time for the Mac partition that I thought something went wrong or something wasn't responding correctly etc... I decided to hard restart the system to see if that did anything. Even when the encrypting of the Mac partition wasn't finished, I was still able to access my Mac partition's data fine. So I figured everything went okay. After the system booted back up in OS X, the Mac partition was still encrypting. I decided to see if letting it finish did anything or not so I just let it sit there. It finished and that's when I decided to boot back into Windows. That's when I realized I wasn't able to access my Windows partition and the data. I figured I wasn't able to access the Windows partition of the drive because I fucked up the encryption process by hard restarting the system. Turns out, this was not the case. When I encrypted the Mac partition it turns out that doing so, the encryption process for Mac revoked rights for myself to access the Windows and Linux partitions on Windows and Linux OSes. So that's when I started freaking out (obviously at this point I thought I was fucked).

 

After freaking out for a while, I thought maybe decrypting the Mac partition would reverse the whole situation. Not exactly.......... You would figure that it would be fine after doing so but I guess not?....... It seems as if the Mac encryption process creates a dedicated protective partition or something? (See images) So I had a look in Disk Management in the Windows side of things to see what was going on. Looked pretty okay until I saw that my entire Linux partition was recognized as unallocated space. So when I saw that I was thinking that the data is so horribly corrupted that it doesn't even see the 3rd partition correctly. 

 

So I'm out of ideas and my thoughts are that my data is so horribly corrupted that there is going to be no chance of recovery at all. When I was in the Mac OS, I noticed that it still saw that all 3 partitions were there which was interesting, but I wasn't able to access the two of them. I booted into Linux to see what it saw and it actually saw the Linux partition, but it said that I didn't have permission to access it. After that, I decided to install VeraCrypt for Mac to see if that did anything. Maybe it would be able to see the Windows partition somehow? Luckily, it found the Windows partition (that's where 99% of my data was by the way) so at this point I couldn't fucking believe it. Did not expect such an idea to work, but there I was and it was there. 

 

Currently have my Windows partition now backed up/on a different PC until I can get a backup dedicated drive for my desktop. Doesn't look like I'll be able to get the Linux partition or any data there back, but I don't really care because I didn't have much on there anyway. The Mac partition is still intact and I'll get my Mac files off there soon. 

 

Image.pngImage 2.png

Posted

So I think I just lost all of my data on my hard drive for my Windows partition and I was wondering where/who I should go to for help. 

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You should ask for help at LTT 

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8 hours ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Shit Linus had a similar problem let me look for the video

They're not open right now. 

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2 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Shit Linus had a similar problem let me look for the video

 

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Posted

 

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You can use recuva yourself and maybe get some things back, or you can pay a company several thousand dollars to get more stuff back, or you can go to forensics and pay tens of thousands of dollars to get pretty much everything back.

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On 11/8/2016 at 5:26 PM, Enderman said:

You can use recuva yourself and maybe get some things back, or you can pay a company several thousand dollars to get more stuff back, or you can go to forensics and pay tens of thousands of dollars to get pretty much everything back.

Thanks. I'm going to have some "experts" take a look at it. 

 

Recuva didn't do shit because it was unable to recognize the file system/file systems. 

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7 minutes ago, IAmLamp said:

Thanks. I'm going to have some "experts" take a look at it. 

 

Recuva didn't do shit because it was unable to recognize the file system/file systems. 

Good luck, linus recommended that recovery company in his server video, maybe check that one out or something similar.

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On 11/8/2016 at 5:56 PM, Enderman said:

Good luck, linus recommended that recovery company in his server video, maybe check that one out or something similar.

Yeah I did and they're close right now. The emergencies start at $3,000. Something I do not have. 

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8 hours ago, IAmLamp said:

~snip~

Hi there :)

 

My two cents are that you should turn to a data recovery company for the highest chances of getting your data back. If the drive has a hardware issue any further usage (testing ,recovery attempts, etc.) may damage it even more. 

This is also valid for using data recovery tools yourself - any unsuccessful attempts may further damage the drive.

 

What's the drive's brand and model?

 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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I got my data back, I'll be making a post soon. 

 

Hang tight, it's going to be a lengthy one as well. 

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Posted
  • Solution

Okay so I managed to get my data back. 

 

I'll be explaining what happened. So basically, I have my mass storage device (WD Green 2TB) partitioned 3 times. One for Linux, one for Windows, and one for Mac. The issue is when things went wrong with the mac partition. Storing all 3 partitions on the same drive isn't the problem. Things went wrong when I was encrypting the Mac partition. The way that I encrypted the Mac partition was right clicking on the drive in OS X and selecting the encrypt option. (Basically the default method for encrypting something in OS X as far as I know. ) It successfully encrypted the partition. However, doing so, I was unable to access my Windows and Linux partitions when I rebooted back into the Windows and Linux operating systems. I thought that I had lost all of my data because the encrypting process was taking such a long time for the Mac partition that I thought something went wrong or something wasn't responding correctly etc... I decided to hard restart the system to see if that did anything. Even when the encrypting of the Mac partition wasn't finished, I was still able to access my Mac partition's data fine. So I figured everything went okay. After the system booted back up in OS X, the Mac partition was still encrypting. I decided to see if letting it finish did anything or not so I just let it sit there. It finished and that's when I decided to boot back into Windows. That's when I realized I wasn't able to access my Windows partition and the data. I figured I wasn't able to access the Windows partition of the drive because I fucked up the encryption process by hard restarting the system. Turns out, this was not the case. When I encrypted the Mac partition it turns out that doing so, the encryption process for Mac revoked rights for myself to access the Windows and Linux partitions on Windows and Linux OSes. So that's when I started freaking out (obviously at this point I thought I was fucked).

 

After freaking out for a while, I thought maybe decrypting the Mac partition would reverse the whole situation. Not exactly.......... You would figure that it would be fine after doing so but I guess not?....... It seems as if the Mac encryption process creates a dedicated protective partition or something? (See images) So I had a look in Disk Management in the Windows side of things to see what was going on. Looked pretty okay until I saw that my entire Linux partition was recognized as unallocated space. So when I saw that I was thinking that the data is so horribly corrupted that it doesn't even see the 3rd partition correctly. 

 

So I'm out of ideas and my thoughts are that my data is so horribly corrupted that there is going to be no chance of recovery at all. When I was in the Mac OS, I noticed that it still saw that all 3 partitions were there which was interesting, but I wasn't able to access the two of them. I booted into Linux to see what it saw and it actually saw the Linux partition, but it said that I didn't have permission to access it. After that, I decided to install VeraCrypt for Mac to see if that did anything. Maybe it would be able to see the Windows partition somehow? Luckily, it found the Windows partition (that's where 99% of my data was by the way) so at this point I couldn't fucking believe it. Did not expect such an idea to work, but there I was and it was there. 

 

Currently have my Windows partition now backed up/on a different PC until I can get a backup dedicated drive for my desktop. Doesn't look like I'll be able to get the Linux partition or any data there back, but I don't really care because I didn't have much on there anyway. The Mac partition is still intact and I'll get my Mac files off there soon. 

 

Image.pngImage 2.png

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So yeah, I wouldn't recommend the Mac encryption from the OS if you're going to be storing all three, Linux, Mac, and Windows onto a single drive. Quite poorly done if you ask me for Apple's part. 

 

Not even sure if I'll use VeraCrypt. If anything I'm thinking more towards getting dedicated separate drives so that it can't go wrong. This would be that every OS is responsible for its own each individual dedicated space. Idk yet still doing a bunch of stuff 

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On 9.11.2016 г. at 6:59 PM, IAmLamp said:

~snip~

Thanks for the clear and extensive explanation of the whole process. Glad to see you managed to get most of the data and backed it up on another drive.

I suspect that the encryption process somehow altered the file systems on the other two partitions or changed the access rights via the extra security partition. 

 

Giving Apple a call may resolve this. 

 

To be on the safe side, try using separate drives for each OS or a second HDD for your data. If you need security, try storing your data on an external drive and use an encryption software or simply use an external drive with hardware encryption such as the WD My Passport. 

 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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On 11/10/2016 at 0:38 AM, Captain_WD said:

Thanks for the clear and extensive explanation of the whole process. Glad to see you managed to get most of the data and backed it up on another drive.

I suspect that the encryption process somehow altered the file systems on the other two partitions or changed the access rights via the extra security partition. 

 

Giving Apple a call may resolve this. 

 

To be on the safe side, try using separate drives for each OS or a second HDD for your data. If you need security, try storing your data on an external drive and use an encryption software or simply use an external drive with hardware encryption such as the WD My Passport. 

 

Captain_WD. 

I think the WD Passport is incorrect for the link? 

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9 minutes ago, IAmLamp said:

I think the WD Passport is incorrect for the link? 

Omg ??????

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On 11/10/2016 at 4:07 PM, Aleksbgbg said:

Omg ??????

?

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7 hours ago, IAmLamp said:

~snip~

Apologies, something must have gone wrong. I've fixed the link. Here it is: https://www.wdc.com/en-ie/products/portable-storage/my-passport.html   

 

Captain_WD. 

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Well, my 2¢ with data recovery...

 

Use a drive cloning software such as clonezilla and perform a drive to drive duplication , and if its a bad drive, perform another dupe from the good drive to another, then work on decorrupting data on the cloned drive. If its a good drive, but data has been deleted, enypted, or whatever, try to rebuild the file structure, undelete data (or decrypt it in your case) on the duplicated drive, this way if anything goes wrong and you make matters worse...

 

You've always got an original copy.

 

Anyway, glad to hear you got it back, I've done free data recovery for close friends of mine, and it was the most stressful thing I have ever done...

 

WD green, and it was even doing the click of death sometimes.

 

Again, first thing to do is make a duplicate of whatever is left onto a stable drive...

 

Maybe I should do a tutorial...

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