C Drive Encryption Aborts Mid-Stream, Now What?

Bug Reports - CDE
1

I used Disk Encryption on my D Drive, where I keep my data, without any problems, so I decided to also encrypt my C drive, which is where I keep all of my programs, including Windows and Program Files.
Unfortunately, my system hanged somewhere in the midst of the encryption process. I had to do a cold/hard reboot; upon rebooting, the software asked my for my password (the way it had done since I had encrypted my D drive). Alas, the very next message is that it could not find a valid operating system.
On trying to recover my C Drive using the Windows installation disk (Vista Ultimate) it again says that it could not find a prior OS. On trying to run CHKDSK on C drive, it says that the file type is FAT32, not NTFS (prior to starting the encryption, the file type was NTFS, of course).
I was using SHA-256 with Blowfish.
Now what can I/we do?
The ideal would be if we could get the encryption to finish by booting from a CD-ROM and running some DOS program that completes the encryption of my C drive; the next best thing would be to run some Windows Slipstreamed Kernel and then your Disk Encryption Software, assuming that it can recover from a partially completed encryption.
I’m sure that I’m not the first one who encountered this problem. Hopefully, you have a decent solution to it.
I had spent over 100 hours setting up this new machine (which actually is an Acer Aspire UltraPortable running Windows XP Pro SP3. I believe that I was using your latest production Disk Encryption software, version Comodo Disk Encryption 1.2.65021.129 or something close to it (since I had only downloaded it about a wekk ago).
I have used some other encryption software in the past (DriveCrypt and DriveCrypt Plus), and never had this type of a problem with it.
Please help!
Thanks.
Peter
support@pspitzer.com

2

Hello Peter,

This sounds nasty, i think it’s best to raise a support ticket here:

Submit a Ticket, PC Security Software

Can you keep this post up2date on the progress ?

Regards,
Ronny

3

Hi,

I can help you to recover your data from d:\ partition.

Please follow these steps. All you need is Windows setup boot CD.

  1. Fix the master boot record (MBR).
  2. Start windows installation and format c:\ as ntfs (actually is raw space due to abort operation).
  3. After windows installation is finished, install COMODO Disk Encryption.
  4. use add remove encrypted partitions from tools menu and assign the d:\ partition as an encrypted partition by typing the encryption settings (password + hash algorithm + cipher) and you will have your data back.

How To FixMBR using Windows Vista Bootable Disk?

Step 1) Boot up your computer using Microsoft Windows Vista Bootable disk. (Check your BIOS setup)
Step 2) When you see the 1st Windows Vista installation screen appear, please configure your ‘language’ preferences.
Step 3) When prompted, click ‘Repair your computer’.
Step 4) Click Command Prompt from the System Recovery Options.
Step 5) Run “BootRec /FixMbr”.
Step 6) This command re-writes the master boot record (MBR) of the system partition to start Windows Vista. This won’t overwrite the existing partition table.

How To FixMBR using Windows XP Bootable Disk?

Step 1) Boot up your computer using Microsoft Windows XP Bootable disk. (Check your BIOS setup)
Step 2) When you the first Windws Xp installation screen appears, select “Repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console” by pressing ‘R’.
Step 3) In that command prompt screen type “FIXMBR”.
Step 4) This command re-writes the master boot record (MBR) of the system partition to start Windows XP. This won’t overwrite the existing partition table.

4

Thanks, I wasn’t concerned about my D drive. I hadn’t loaded any significant amount of data unto the laptop yet.
Is there any way to recover my C drive though? I had spent about 100 hours setting up various programs on it and was just about to start loaded data unto it from another laptop.

Alas, I don’t have a C drive backup, or I would have used it.
The encryption aborted while working on my C drive. Is there any way that I can have it finish encrypting?

I really don’t want to have to reinstall everything on this PC, if at all possible.

RSVP to this specific question, please.

Thanks.

Peter