Comments on How To Recover Data From An Encrypted Harddisk On Boot Failure With Ubuntu 14.04

How to recover data from an encrypted harddisk on boot failure with Ubuntu 14.04 This document describes how to recover an encrypted harddisk in a failed boot device for Ubuntu 14.04 Server. This method will work for Ubuntu Desktop also. This is a very havoc situation when the distro fails to boot and we have our important data inside the distro. If the harddisk is not encrypted then we can easily retrieve our data with the help of live-cds or live-USB boot devices, but if the harddisk was encrypted then situation becomes little hectic. I will cover the topic for encrypted harddisk data retrieval from Ubuntu distros.

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By: flapdoodle
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Hi, I encrypted my home folder a while back when I installed Ubuntu 13.04 then I upgraded to 13.10, (silly me), got stuck in login loop, so I did a fresh install of 14.04.

Now I cant access my info on my home drive.

Will this tutorial be useful in my situation?

I know the passphrase and had some success mounting it but I didn't understand exactly where my info was.

Please see below.

I have tried a couple of things to mount/view my folder since I installed 14.04 but without success.
[LIST=1][*]ecryptfs-mount-private ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly[*]sudo ecryptfs-mount-private [sudo] password for beefcake: ERROR: Encrypted private directory is not setup properly[*]sudo -i encryptfs-mount-private -bash: encryptfs-mount-private: command not found[*]sudo ecryptfs-recover-private INFO: Searching for encrypted private directories (this might take a while)... INFO: Found [/media/beefcake/ad7119ef-aaa2-4e81-a16d-9f84687dcd7f/.ecryptfs/beefcake/.Private]. Try to recover this directory? [Y/n]: y INFO: Found your wrapped-passphrase Do you know your LOGIN passphrase? [Y/n] n INFO: To recover this directory, you MUST have your original MOUNT passphrase. INFO: When you first setup your encrypted private directory, you were told to record INFO: your MOUNT passphrase. INFO: It should be 32 characters long, consisting of [0-9] and [a-f]. Enter your MOUNT passphrase: INFO: Success! Private data mounted at [/tmp/ecryptfs.nLVycpoH].

 

Thanks

Lex