Windows 10: How to open .img file created by repair-bde

Hello,
One of my bitlocker encrypted drives got corrupted. I used repair-bde to recover it and save it into an image file which turned out to be 58 gb in size. However, I am unable to open the archive using 7zip or other tools. Do I absolutely have to mount it? Since I don't have a spare HD lying around.

:)

 

Bit Locker stopped in middle at 17% Now unable to use the disk.

Dear Experts

Thanks in advance for looking and anyone who is answering.

I am on Windows 10 and tried to encrypt a external hard disk. It was running for 1 whole day and at 17% I had to stop it. I read, when the computer is restarted, it will resume encryption. But unfortunately it never resumed. I am left with external hard-disk
that is not accessible now. I get a popup to enter password but it says, the disk is not accessible.

I search for solutions before making this postings where it was mentioned to use the command line "repair-bde". I tried the command as below:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>repair-bde -force g: f: -pw <- I enter the password on prompt

See the messages given:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BitLocker Drive Encryption: Repair Tool version 10.0.16299

Copyright (C) 2013 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Enter the password to unlock this volume:

LOG ERROR: 0xc0000030

Failed to open 'g:'. (0x80070020)

ERROR: Cannot open 'g:'. Check that it is not currently in use. To continue

even when the volume is in use, add the -Force option.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I even used the -Force option but no use as we can see above.

I searched for the help on command repair-bde - link is below:

repair-bde

The following limitations exist for the Repair-bde command-line tool:-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Repair-bde cannot repair a drive that failed during the encryption or decryption process.

• Repair-bde assumes that if the drive has any encryption, then the drive has been fully encrypted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It clearly says as below which means the repair-bde cannot repair a drive that failed during the encryption process. Though in my case, I had paused it and shut-down the machine.

Now the question is how do I recover the data on the external hard disk. I have my historical educational videos and my photos as well.

Any clue in the direction to recover the disk would be very much appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Madhusudan

 

Does Windows offer a BitLocker recovery tool?

Hi, Melliza!

I tried it following a tutorial in Internet. First I indexed the pen drive in Disk Manager creating a new volume with no format specified for it. Then I ran the repair-bde and it reported no errors and told me that all recovered well into an .img file. I
tried to mount the .img file and got error. I then tried to extract the contents of the .img using compression software and got only one of my files recovered partially. I considered the detection of one of my files a good sight. Then I formatted the pen drive
using quick format into default options and NTFS(because I don't remember the file system it was at the moment it got broken). And with the consecutive formats the data was becoming more and more obfuscated until in the end the compression software was not
recognizing the .img file produced by the repair-bde as a file system. The recover-bde tool always, regardless the formatting of the pen drive was able to find the "bitlocker meta data" at the same place. After the formats, the third party recovery software
still recognizes the pen drive as BitLocker protected and can recreate the three of my files correctly. I am beginning student in C#, I am not a professional, if I was, I would have my work saved in various places simultaneously :/ I use Windows all my life
for its stability. I never expected to lose data due problems with Windows. Excepting this fail, Windows never gave me any problems. Sadly the third party recovery software seems too expensive for my possibilities.