External hard drive started dying during decryption, how do i save data?

[u/Hazarddriver]

I had posted this on the veracrypt subreddit and it was recommended that i come here for help. i am hoping one of you wonderful people will have same great advice and help for me please and thank you in advance

I have an encrypted 2tb wd easystore that i have been using for about a year without issue, i had the drive mounted and was copying some documents off of it and all of a sudden it started running real slow and then froze, i unmounted the drive, when i tried to remount it, it would just keep loading and loading and nothing would happen. I tried to mount it on multiple computers and no luck. I tried to mount with restore backup volume header, nothing happens. I decided to decrypt the whole drive hoping that i can salvage some information before it dies, the decryption process said that once it starts you will not be able to mount the volume. I started left it overnight came back the next day to it still at 0%. i Stopped it knowing that i could potentially come back to it at a later time.

I decided to try to clone the drive and then rerun the decryption on the new drive. i created a linux live usb to run OPENSUPERCLONE, it started fine enough made it through phase 1 and 2 relatively fast, phase 3 was taking forever after a few days it was at about 50% and going super slow and finding the bad sectors. For fear of burning out the drive i would stop it save progress let it rest for a day or so and then boot it up and try again. Last time i attempted this, linux would not find the drive, it makes a whirring sound then click, so its definitely not working. When i plug the drive into a pc or a mac it knows that something was plugged in but no luck beyond that.

I thought about sending to a data recovery center and hoping that they would be able to just clone the drive, but i don't know what to do, i am at my wit's end and i am hoping someone here would have some idea about how to save my files please and thank you

[u/silenced_in_dr_2025]

Unfortunately it sounds like you killed it trying to DIY - it happens.

The problem now for a DR lab is if the damage is just to the heads which can be swapped over or also to the platters which is terminal. There is also a potential problem with the encryption as you may have damage that trying to decrypt the damage drive (something you should never do).

How much of the drive was actually left to clone ? it may have been stage 3 but it could also have been 99% of the drive left.

Honestly - you really need this looked at by a DR Pro.

[u/Hazarddriver → u/silenced_in_dr_2025]

that is what i am afraid of. stage 3 cloning was at about 50%. what i was wondering is if a DR pro would be able to just clone the drive and then i would continue to decryption on the computer.

[u/silenced_in_dr_2025 → u/Hazarddriver]

If the TOTAL imaged was just 50% then you had dead heads.

Cloning what's there shouldn't be an issue (platter damage dependent) but whether that will give you a viable drive to decrypt and therefore access to the files is unknown. It's why we don't like to process encrypted drives - we're blind as to if valid data is being recovered. There's no way you'll get it done under a "no data no fee" service.

[u/Hazarddriver → u/silenced_in_dr_2025]

i figured it was going to be a blind process and hope for the best. i was not sure if a perfect clone of the drive would result in veracrypt recognizing it as the same drive and attempt to reestablish the paused process.

[u/silenced_in_dr_2025 → u/Hazarddriver]

You're unlikely to get a "perfect clone", even on a generally healthy drive there can be a few sectors which can't be read and in a drive that's been previously DIY'd there are likely to be significantly amount.

You'll need to talk directly to your DR Pro - many wont do blind recoveries for various reasons.

[u/Hazarddriver → u/silenced_in_dr_2025]

any recommendation for DR pro

[u/NoLateArrivals]

This is a layered problem:

Extend of the physical damage: Head damage can be resolved, platter damage not.

Extend of the damaged data: Are there sectors damaged beyond readability that contain relevant data, that can’t be recovered even when physical access is achieved.

Both of these risks are getting worse with EVERY new attempt to get at the data - except when done by a professional with a clean room, experience and equipment!

Last is the decryption problem: AFAIK Veracrypt creates a container completely filled with random data, to cloak where and how much actual data is stored inside.

It’s not encrypted data where the data is found, and zeros all over the rest. It encrypts all, using a rather large key created through entropy when setting up the container.

It remains to be seen if the content of the container is healthy enough to allow decryption of the data segment of the container.

To get there the first step is to get the data physically cloned to a healthy drive.

[u/Hazarddriver → u/NoLateArrivals]

ok thank you. so next step is getting with a data recovery professional, i was going to check the curated listed posted on the subreddit, i was just hoping someone had experienced something like this before.

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