File Share Encryption

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  • 1.  PGP 10.0.1 WDE Ext-HDD Partition broke, NFTS to RAW. How to solve?

    Posted Nov 05, 2014 09:31 AM

    I have a SeaGate 1.5 TB external HDD that has been WDE with PGP Desktop 10.0.1

    It has 15 years of business backup data on it, so it's of utmost importance it be saved. I guess the lesson is to backup twice..

    The partition table broke, it went from NFTS to RAW.

    Any solutions to this problem, either fixing the partition table or transferring files elsewhere?

    I'm so busy at work I haven't had a chance to attempt a boot-OS but the Linux versions I have, with it being encrypted and my PGP being Windows, I doubt it'll help, and a WIN boot-OS won't read it. What a conundrum.

    Thanks in advance.



  • 2.  RE: PGP 10.0.1 WDE Ext-HDD Partition broke, NFTS to RAW. How to solve?

    Posted Nov 10, 2014 11:53 PM
    Any ideas What caused the partition table to break? Is the drive failing? If it is failing, have you considered making a sector by sector backup of the drive? As always, I would recommend reading through and attempting our standard recovery procedures. The recovery procedures are available at the link below. http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH149679 Since it is an external drive I would recommend starting with section two. The pgpwde Enum and status will give you an indication of wether our not the encryption data is available. If it is not available you may want to try pgpwde --recover --disk x If the partition table is damaged the recover command will look for a second copy of that data, which should be written to a random location. It may take a while to run as it will search the drive from beginning to end. Please forgive any typos - I am composing this reply from a mobile device.


  • 3.  RE: PGP 10.0.1 WDE Ext-HDD Partition broke, NFTS to RAW. How to solve?

    Posted Nov 11, 2014 02:59 PM

    Phil, thanks for your reply..

    I'm going to do a sector backup as soon as I get another HD to back it up to..

    But, here's an update I forgot to post here..

    When you plug the drive in it asks to be formatted, so it's detecting a disk. It makes a small noose when starting but nothing really abnormal. SMART scan fines the drive in perfect shape and staying at 26c.
    >wmic logicaldisk get name returns C:/(OS) D:/(CD) and E:/(Encrypted drive
    However..
    ../PGP Desktop> pgpwde --enum only returns disk 0 (OS)
    When using >pgpwde --decrypt --disk1 it returns a not found error, obviously. Not sure why WMIC returns the drive but ENUM doesn't..



  • 4.  RE: PGP 10.0.1 WDE Ext-HDD Partition broke, NFTS to RAW. How to solve?

    Posted Nov 12, 2014 06:59 PM

    Have you attempted the PGPWDE --recover command?
    I don't have much faith in that command working if your disk is not enumerating via the pgpwde --enum command, but it is worth trying the --recover opton. Please see the syntax below :
     

    pgpwde --recover --passphrase "password" --disk 1
     


    Please also consider making a WINPE recovery disk, and attempt recovery from there. Many people have better results with recovery from a WINPE environment. The following link contains WINPE recovery images for version 10.3.0 ... However, I understand you are on a much older version (10.0.1). Reverse compatibility is not guaranteed, but there are instructions for customizing a WINPE. You should be able to customize a PE for your version by following those instructions.

    Windows PE & BartPE Tools for Symantec Encryption Desktop 10.3.0 - http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH200751

    I hope you are able to recover your data soon!
    -Phil



  • 5.  RE: PGP 10.0.1 WDE Ext-HDD Partition broke, NFTS to RAW. How to solve?

    Posted Nov 14, 2014 09:54 AM

    Phil, thanks a lot for attempting to help with this problem. I really appreciate it.

    As you expected, the command returned the following error:

    "C:\Program Files\PGP Corporation\PGP Desktop>pgpwde --decrypt --disk 1 --passphrase "xxx"
    Disk 1 not found
    Operation start decrypt disk failed:
    Error code -11984: item not found"

    I've used Kali Linux Boot and it didn't read the drive, but I will download a WinPE disk today while here at work and try that..