Cannot recover damaged MFT on a TrueCrypt partition

[invisibro1]

I've been using TrueCrypt 7.0a to encrypt the partitions on my external and internal hard drives for quite some time now. In fact, because I had no other available space, I copied a disc iso to one such partition just last night.
This morning, however, when I try to mount and access that partition, Windows won't recognize the mounted partition, and when I run "repair filesystem" from within TrueCrypt -- the equivalent of running chkdsk from a command prompt, I get:

Corrupt master file table. Windows will attempt to recover
master file table from disk.

After a lengthy wait (it IS a 250GB partition), it returns the message I least want to hear:

Windows cannot recover master file table. CHKDSK aborted.

Can anyone advise me as to another way to try to recover/repair the MFT so that I can access my data?

 

[F5ing]

Is the drive healthy? Have you gotten help on any Truecrypt related forums?

 

[invisibro1]

The drive seems healthy. There are a total of four 250GB partitions in use on it. The first one is unencrypted. The second and fourth ones are encrypted but successfully mount and are accessible in Windows. It is only the third one that is having this problem. I have been reading some of the related posts and am currently using TestDisk 6.14 in an effort to try to find and reassemble the MFT. Unfortunately, being a 250GB partition, the process is taking an interminable amount of time. If this fails, I have no idea what to try next.

 

[F5ing]

So they are encrypted partitions rather than file containers?

I've used Testdisk successfully on many hard drives, but I'm unsure if it'll be able to deal with the table of a Truecrypt partition...

Let us know how it goes, please...

And good luck!

 

[F5ing]

By the way, all you did was a standard copy/move of a file to that partition? And later found the partition was corrupted? And it just so happened to be an iso file that you copied?

It shouldn't really care what file types get moved to it, right?

I take it you mentioned that iso move simply to indicate it was fine before the move yet corrupt afterward. Not that it had anything to do with the iso file itself.

 

[invisibro1]

I don't believe the iso move had anything to do with the problem. It was just mentioned as evidence that the drive had just previously been working properly. btw, it was not a standard copy/move -- that iso arrived there directly via download.

 

[F5ing]

A download initiated by you via a web browser?

 

[invisibro1]

Yes, it was a download initiated by me via a web browser. Something that I do all the time and have never experienced any adverse results.

 

[F5ing]

So it was likely Windows doing the writing of that file.

Have any luck with Testdisk?

Might be time to thoroughly check on the health of that drive.

 

[invisibro1]

I've had no luck with TestDisk. There seemed to be no other options, so I have reformatted that partition and am attempting to re-accumulate the lost data. I apologize if I seem to have given up too easily but, one way or another, I was in dire need of the space.

 

[F5ing]

Well, it happens I guess. Gotta do what you gotta do.

What is the make/model of the external?

 

[invisibro1]

Sorry about this late reply.

The drive is a Western Digital My Passport 1 Terabyte USB 3.0

 

[F5ing]

I would test the drive to verify how healthy it is:

WD Support / Downloads / My Passport / My Passport Essential

Don't worry if the link doesn't reference your specific drive, the software is for multiple HD products...