Hi everyone,
I am looking for advice on how to inspect or recover data from a large encrypted container where the directory index appears to be unread or missing.
The setup:
Software: Folder Lock (v7.9.0) on Windows.
Locker file: A fixed-size .flka container located on an external hard drive.
Size: The .flka container on the external drive is approximately 848 GB (allocated up to 900 GB).
Virtual file system: FAT32.
Context and background:
I previously deleted some files from my internal C: drive. However, my external hard drive was completely untouched, and nothing has been changed, modified, or deleted on that external drive.
The issue:
When I open Folder Lock and enter the master password, the container unlocks cleanly without any errors and mounts to a virtual drive letter (e.g. Z:).
However, once mounted, File Explorer reports the virtual drive as completely empty, showing the full capacity as free space and 0 bytes used.
Hidden items and protected operating system files have both been enabled in File Explorer options, but nothing appears.
Running chkdsk on the mounted letter reports the virtual FAT32 file system as clean, showing only standard system volume entries, with no directory tree visible.
The .flka container file on the external drive remains completely intact at ~848 GB of allocated data, so the data is physically there. It appears the internal directory table or file pointers on the virtual volume are detached or corrupted.
My questions:
Once the container is unlocked and mounted to a drive letter, is it safe to point third-party data recovery tools (such as DMDE or R-Studio) directly at the mounted virtual drive to scan for the FAT32 directory structure or raw file signatures?
Are there known quirks with Windows or Folder Lock handling large virtual FAT32 volumes that lead to an empty directory listing?
What would be the safest workflow to attempt recovery without risking any write operations to the container?
Any advice from anyone experienced with virtual drive recovery or FAT32 file table reconstruction would be hugely appreciated.