Hello World,
I'm Ashwin seeking assistance with recovering and mounting an encrypted external hard drive on my Ubuntu system. Here's the situation:
Background:I recently attempted to encrypt my external hard drive, a Western Digital HDD extracted from an old laptop, using the LUKS encryption method following the documentation from RedHat's site. Before encryption, I was able to mount and use the drive via the /media folder.
Issue:After encryption, the drive stopped mounting, although it does prompt me for the password to unlock it when connected.
Decryption Attempt:Following the issues with mounting, I decrypted the drive, but the problem persists.
Screenshot of partitions on the disk
Important Information:
Here's the output of lsblk:
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTSloop0 7:0 0 4K 1 loop /snap/bare/5loop1 7:1 0 55.7M 1 loop /snap/core18/2812loop2 7:2 0 55.7M 1 loop /snap/core18/2823loop3 7:3 0 63.9M 1 loop /snap/core20/2182loop4 7:4 0 63.9M 1 loop /snap/core20/2264loop5 7:5 0 74.2M 1 loop /snap/core22/1122loop6 7:6 0 74.2M 1 loop /snap/core22/1380loop7 7:7 0 268.3M 1 loop /snap/firefox/4090loop8 7:8 0 269.6M 1 loop /snap/firefox/4173loop9 7:9 0 346.3M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/119loop10 7:10 0 349.7M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/143loop11 7:11 0 504.2M 1 loop /snap/gnome-42-2204/172loop12 7:12 0 505.1M 1 loop /snap/gnome-42-2204/176loop13 7:13 0 91.7M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535loop14 7:14 0 853.7M 1 loop /snap/intellij-idea-community/495loop15 7:15 0 854.9M 1 loop /snap/intellij-idea-community/498loop16 7:16 0 25.4M 1 loop /snap/nvim/2819loop17 7:17 0 173M 1 loop /snap/postman/248loop18 7:18 0 176.1M 1 loop /snap/postman/250loop19 7:19 0 12.9M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/1113loop20 7:20 0 12.3M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/959loop21 7:21 0 39.1M 1 loop /snap/snapd/21184loop22 7:22 0 38.7M 1 loop /snap/snapd/21465loop23 7:23 0 476K 1 loop /snap/snapd-desktop-integration/157loop24 7:24 0 452K 1 loop /snap/snapd-desktop-integration/83sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 260M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 16M 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 452.1G 0 part ├─sda4 8:4 0 1000M 0 part ├─sda5 8:5 0 11.5G 0 part └─sda6 8:6 0 1000M 0 part /media/ashwintemkar/LRS_ESPnvme0n1 259:0 0 476.9G 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi└─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 476.4G 0 part /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspellAnd the output of sudo fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107861504 bytes, 976773167 sectorsDisk model: External Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytesSector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytesI/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytesDisklabel type: gptDisk identifier: 1CF816B9-2D8B-4AE5-8708-D650E0D14F81Device Start End Sectors Size Type/dev/sda1 2048 534527 532480 260M EFI System/dev/sda2 534528 567295 32768 16M Microsoft reserved/dev/sda3 567296 948660223 948092928 452.1G Microsoft basic data/dev/sda4 948662272 950710271 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment/dev/sda5 950710272 974725119 24014848 11.5G Windows recovery environment/dev/sda6 974725120 976773119 2048000 1000M Lenovo boot partitionwhich mean it detects my drive but isn't letting me use the main partition
Additionally, running fsck /dev/sda3 gives the following error:
fsck from util-linux 2.37.2e2fsck 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-blockfsck.ext2: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...fsck.ext2: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sda3The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblockis corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock: e2fsck -b 8193 <device> or e2fsck -b 32768 <device>Found a dos partition table in /dev/sda3Request:I need assistance in recovering and mounting the encrypted external hard drive without any data loss. The allocated data has not been overwritten yet.
Note:
I have been using sudo throughout the process.All data needs to be retrieved safely without any damage or loss.I appreciate any guidance or help on this matter. Thank you!
EDIT:
Before I unplugged it yesterday, I was getting following on lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTSloop0 7:0 0 4K 1 loop /snap/bare/5loop1 7:1 0 55.7M 1 loop /snap/core18/2812loop2 7:2 0 55.7M 1 loop /snap/core18/2823loop3 7:3 0 63.9M 1 loop /snap/core20/2182loop4 7:4 0 63.9M 1 loop /snap/core20/2264loop5 7:5 0 74.2M 1 loop /snap/core22/1122loop6 7:6 0 74.2M 1 loop /snap/core22/1380loop7 7:7 0 268.3M 1 loop /snap/firefox/4090loop8 7:8 0 269.6M 1 loop /snap/firefox/4173loop9 7:9 0 346.3M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/119loop10 7:10 0 349.7M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-38-2004/143loop11 7:11 0 504.2M 1 loop /snap/gnome-42-2204/172loop12 7:12 0 505.1M 1 loop /snap/gnome-42-2204/176loop13 7:13 0 91.7M 1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1535loop14 7:14 0 853.7M 1 loop /snap/intellij-idea-community/495loop15 7:15 0 854.9M 1 loop /snap/intellij-idea-community/498loop16 7:16 0 173M 1 loop /snap/postman/248loop17 7:17 0 12.9M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/1113loop18 7:18 0 12.3M 1 loop /snap/snap-store/959loop19 7:19 0 39.1M 1 loop /snap/snapd/21184loop20 7:20 0 38.7M 1 loop /snap/snapd/21465loop21 7:21 0 476K 1 loop /snap/snapd-desktop-integration/157loop22 7:22 0 452K 1 loop /snap/snapd-desktop-integration/83loop23 7:23 0 176.1M 1 loop /snap/postman/250loop24 7:24 0 25.4M 1 loop /snap/nvim/2819sda 8:0 0 465.8G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 260M 0 part ├─sda2 8:2 0 16M 0 part ├─sda3 8:3 0 452.1G 0 part │└─luks-3c96b225-9b52-4a62-a2cd-6fb4c3f497cc│ 252:0 0 452.1G 0 crypt ├─sda4 8:4 0 1000M 0 part ├─sda5 8:5 0 11.5G 0 part └─sda6 8:6 0 1000M 0 part /media/ashwintemkar/LRS_ESPnvme0n1 259:0 0 476.9G 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi└─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 476.4G 0 part /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell