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Encryption headache

The oher day I installed Sophos enterprise encription suite (sorry for possibly wrong terms) and then restared system.

Before anything I would like to say that instalation procedure for me as non-English rather ordinary Windows 7 user was too complicated. First I had to download compressed file then unpack it and then in folder there were several msi installers with no obvious installing sequence. After running all of them (I hope that was correct thing to do) I restarted the system. On the next boot I was presented wih new auth screen in which I had to fill data fields with my credentials. That all went well and after few momens usual windows desktop thing showed up. Then I saw that some Sophos progress window was showing to me different information about presumably encryption progress. That window was unmanagable.

Then After few hours after reading more about the encrypion techniques and the need of different people and organizations, I decided that I acually don't need it. Ah well. Then I went to conrol panel and among installed programs found several Sophos components. One by one I deinstalled all but one which was giving error saying it can't be done until encryption is fully over. I waited 30 minutes or so more and tried again. This time installer was stuck at some configuration step. It waited and waited and waited and at one point new window popped up saying something like "This and that is done, would you like to restart now or later". I clicked OK and he system rebooted again, only this time there was no usual boot screens, neither from windows or Sophos, he only thing I got was, if I remember wording correctly: "A drive error occured... Press ctrl+alt+del to restart". No matter how many times I tried it was happening over again.

My uneducated guess would be that the whole drive was encrypted and after that Sophos components removed, so there isn't any client to handle boot or login sequence.

I don't have kernel thing backup I read about to try to fix the issue that way. I tried new Windows installation somewhere on that disk but that wasn't possible because win installer is unable to format drives and repairing is impossible because drves report 0 bytes sizes. Also I did buy and connected new HD today on which I installed new Win7 system. The old HD is on my desk unusable for me. The problem is that I have some rather important files on it that I would very much like to get back. I know my login data, both user name and password I used, only I don't know how to use them now to get my old HD back.

Is there any solution for situations like this? 

Thanks in advance and sorry if I'm posting in wrong place.

:39479


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  • Just a small update...

    The error message I was receiving was "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart ..."

    I have connected the original hard disk with new SATA cable and from my new system (on new disk) I see the old disk and partitions there. They all report 0 bytes but can be formatted. I acually formatted one to check. Sot that data is lost. Hopefully with your help I will be able to save other data.

    My current idea is to install windows on cleared partition and then install new SafeGuard Enterprise there. Then after I remove the new disk (I don't trust my self not to do the same thing again) see if safeguard recognizes already encrypted drives. I requested new trial of the software with, unfortunaely,  no response so far.

    Probably I'll do more damage while waiting, lol.

    I have no doubt this is all my fault. I feel so stupid.

    :39509
Reply
  • Just a small update...

    The error message I was receiving was "A Disk Read Error Occured. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart ..."

    I have connected the original hard disk with new SATA cable and from my new system (on new disk) I see the old disk and partitions there. They all report 0 bytes but can be formatted. I acually formatted one to check. Sot that data is lost. Hopefully with your help I will be able to save other data.

    My current idea is to install windows on cleared partition and then install new SafeGuard Enterprise there. Then after I remove the new disk (I don't trust my self not to do the same thing again) see if safeguard recognizes already encrypted drives. I requested new trial of the software with, unfortunaely,  no response so far.

    Probably I'll do more damage while waiting, lol.

    I have no doubt this is all my fault. I feel so stupid.

    :39509
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