Can Recuva help recover my KeePass password database file?

[Fractalogic]

Hi!

 

I just realized that my KeePass database has been rendered useless by the Windows 10 upgrade process. I am still in shock!

 

Toward the end of the upgrade process, Windows 10 did the m*****f****** disk scan and repair b******t and I remember seeing that it scanned my J: drive. This was my backup partition.

 

I didn't realize until now when I tried to open my KeePass file that it has become corrupted. The file name itself is still there! But it's a 0 byte file!

 

Is there any chance Recuva can recover a file whose file name is still intact but the data is missing? I mean, would Recuva even consider such file as missing?

 

What else can I do to undo the wrongdoing of Windows 10 scan and repair process? Can it be undone? Note that it's only this file that's corrupted! All the other s**t is still intact on the partition! Conveniently... only the most important file is corrupted (its data is not linked to its name or whatever). I have never been so screwed by Windows! Ever! In my 20 years of using Windows! I had over 200 passwords saved in that file!

 

Thanks in advance! I would appreciate any help I can get.

[hazelnut]

Any of this help?

 

http://keepass.info/help/base/repair.html

 

Was keepass on your backup partition then? (I'm not sure from your description of the events)

 

Scan and repair cannot be undone.

 

Have you looked in Windows .old folder?

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/223821/what-is-the-windows.old-folder-and-how-do-you-delete-it/

[Fractalogic]

Thanks! I tried the KeePass repair method without any luck. How could it repair it? It's a 0 byte file.

 

Is it beyond recovery then?

 

I can't believe this piece of s*** for an operating system!

 

I had Windows 8.1 installed on an SSD, system disk C, no partitioning except the RAW caching partition. I had the backup partition on a separate partition J, which is a mechanical HDD.

 

Windows 10 should not have even touched my J drive. The reason it did the scan may have something to do with my previous Windows installations and my dual, triple, quad boot configurations with Windows 7, 8, 10, 10 with different builds and so on and so forth, and different Linux distros. I know Windows hates it when other systems are present on the same machine, even if it's another Windows version, even if it's the same version of Windows. Not to mention when it's a Linux or another system present. These stupid automatic disk scan and repair and other "features" try too hard to be smart for their own good.

 

Windows 10 especially, so I've noticed, does not like having multi-boot configurations. I previously had 3 installations of Windows 10 on separate partitions of the same disk. Same build version, same bitness, but different languages. Each time I would reboot into one or the other, the disk repair feature would detect and complain about corruption and s***.

 

The thing is, I saw when Windows 10 was preparing to do the scan and repair. But it was a 3 second timeout! By the time I reached the keyboard, it was already too late! It had began scanning and "repairing". Had I known it would corrupt my KeePass file, I would have pulled the power plug on the f****** machine. Even if it would break the stupid Windows 10 installation. I would rather have my KeePass file intact than Windows 10 smarty pants "feature" destroy my data.

 

I do have a backup of the file, but it's not a fresh copy. I have about 6 months worth of edits that are now lost! Thank you Microsoft!

 

I don't like the empty threats people make by saying things like "I will switch to Linux". But I have never in my life been this close to completely ditching Windows for good! Like many people, I have been tolerating a lot of things on part of Windows and Microsoft, and I kept coming back to Windows for one reason or another. Even though I have been using Linux in a multiboot configuration alongside Windows on many machines and for a long time. But this incident, combined with the buggy and nu-finished bloatware called Windows 10 and surveillance "features", this might just be the last straw that broke the camel's back!

 

At very least, disk scan and repair should have a longer timeout than 3 seconds before it begins! And! It should be non-destructive! It should not have the repair switch enabled! It should be interactive! First, do the scan! Then, ask the user for a course of action! Then, so on and so on. Interactive! Of course, this requires some computer know-how on part of the user. But what's the alternative? Have every f****** computer task automated for us? By Microsoft? Have them "smartphones" and gadgets read our mind and do the right thing for us? Seriously? Are people really this f****** lazy and retarded, that they, for instance don't know how to check the date and time so they would rather have "Cortana" read that loud for them? Or they don't know how to name their folders, so they would rather have a complex algorithm do that for them based on their personality by letting Microsoft learn all about them? What happened to thinking, reading books, learning, and doing things on your own, and thinking on your own? It sickens me to see how this so called "technology" is making people stupid!

 

I know I should have kept several copies of this file. Backup is the golden key to computing! I know this! I have been using computers for over 30 years. I hate myself for not taking a backup of the backup sooner. But I have a busy schedule, like many other people who have a life. I fell behind on backing up to an external disk. But why should I be punished for this? Why would Windows 10 even dare to touch the mechanical J drive? This is certainly not the target disk it was being installed to. Let me tell you! It's because it's a dangerously unsafe, unstable, and defective by design operating system! Windows is too complex! It's hard to build something new from something old. It's hard to keep compatibility with devices and applications, and build new features at the same time. This is hard work even for the most insightful Windows experts.

 

You can dress it up any way you want... Windows will still be Windows. Defective by design! Sticking a Ferrari emblem on a Fiat doesn't make it a Ferrari!

 

I so regret upgrading to this piece of s*** of an operating system. By comparison, even Windows 8, especially 8.1 was excellent! But the best Windows so far was Windows 7! This has been said many times before, and it's worth saying it again. Windows 7 is the best Windows so far! And if look at the way Microsoft is going with Windows 8 and 10, then Windows 7 will be the best and last Windows ever! Windows XP and Windows 7, those are the ones worth mentioning. Of course XP is no longer supported, but so will Windows 7 one day... unfortunately.

[hazelnut]

Please stop all the swearing.

 

You are elequent enough to do without it

 

I'm sure you will now do more frequent backups and watch where you keep things.

 

Like any operating system things can go wrong, no good ranting about it. Either go back to a previous OS or stay with Win 10.... it's not that bad.

[mta]

Ah yes!, backups!, you live or die by them (or lack of them).

 

Sadly @Fractalogic, the horse has bolted and it looks like nothing is going to help you.

Sounds like you are up to step 3 - Anger - on the 7 steps of grief. (only 4 more to go to get to Acceptance)

To look at it from a glass half full approach, I guess you could say 'lucky only one file was squashed'.

 

And although no consolation, hopefully this sad tale acts as a reminder for others as to the importance of backing up your data.

 

From all of us who have been bitten by Microsoft before, lost data before and travelled those 7 steps - you have my sympathy.

[Fractalogic]

Yeah... all true! Indeed, I was going through a phase... now I'm just about done. Sorry about the bad language!

 

Recuva actually managed to grab an old version of the file from the affected partition. It was not the most recent version, but it was better than what I had. I said I had an old copy, but I didn't manage to locate it. I must have misplaced it somewhere, or deleted it. Anyway! The file that Recuva dug up was good enough for me. I used that to build a fresh new file. Technically, I imported the recovered file into the new file. Then I added some new entries and made some edits as well. I'm still not back at where I left off but I have come to accept it now.

 

All that's left now is to try to get back access to my Hotmail account. The password I used there was recently changed prior to this incident. It was changed to some very long random password, auto generated by KeePass. And stored in KeePass! I didn't mind remembering it because KeePass did all that for me! So I don't have that on record anywhere. To make matters worse... I had no alternative email address setup on the account... and!... I can't get a reset code to the registered phone number, because my prepaid SIM card expired in early January! Now I'm fighting Microsoft to get back access!

 

Paper is awesome! I actually had a "hard copy" of many of the entries I had in the KeePass file. I estimate I had a printout of about 50% of what I had on the computer file. But I gotta tell you, I love Recuva! It has bailed me out many times. Even this time! It saved me from a lot of manual work of entering all the data from paper to the computer. Additionally, the recovered file had more entries than what I had on paper.

 

Imagine making printed paper backups of binary data like pictures, videos, and programs... that's totally workable! But it's a lot of hard work to put it back into the computer. Maybe if one had some sort of paper scanning system that feeds, scans, interprets and stores all the weird printed characters into computer files. It would be a funny hack. But absolutely not something I would recommend as a viable backup solution... imagine what it would be like to "sync" the backups... paper style! Wow! Haha! One would have to stock keep tonnes of paper! But for limited amount of data, paper is definitely a workable solution, as backup.

[Fractalogic]

I did some research after this incident. The "scanning and repairing" message actually means that Windows is running the CHKDSK utility program.

 

The CHKDSK program is too primitive!... like many of the aging Windows components that keep appearing in every "new" version of Windows. This program can't handle encrypted data. In fact, it is often recommended that any FDE (full disk encrypted) disk be unlocked or decrypted before CHKDSK may be used on them, in order to avoid data loss. My disk was not encrypted, but this single file on it was in fact encrypted. As a result, it was the only one that got screwed up! Naturally! I now understand why it did that. All the pieces fall into place now.

 

Have a full disk encryption?... or a single file encrypted on a disk? Don't run CHKDSK on it!

 

From what I can tell, what additionally may have caused CHKDSK to not handle the encrypted KeePass file properly is because my file was not compressed. I believe the file header is slightly different for uncompressed files, and this can make the file more or less recognizable by programs like CHKDSK.

 

So CHKDSK treated the associated KeePass file data pretty much like empty disk space. It didn't understand what it was looking at, so it assumed it was just a collection of bad sectors and started relocating them, and what not.

 

One thing I don't understand though... is why would Microsoft, the software giant who knows this all too well... why would they have the CHKDSK command run with the destructive "repair" switch enabled? Why not just run a normal "scan", and then prompt the user for action? Because the user is too stupid to understand the prompt and too uneducated to make an informed decision? See! This is what I meant. Devices are not smart. They are dumb. You can automate things... supposedly "to make our lives easier"... but automated set of commands can't make informed decisions and handle exceptions like an literate, informed computer operator or user can! I miss the old days... when I could operate my own computer... now I have to let go and transfer control to billion dollar companies. They control our digital lives.

 

Making backups is the golden rule of computing! I know that. But with increased complexities of the technology, storage capacity and bandwidth requirements, it's hard to keep up. I normally use Acronis for backups, but I was behind schedule and I was working on setting up a new external DAS disk before the incident. I removed my old backup archives from the internal backup partition as an intermediate step. But instead of making a new backup to the external DAS, I decided to go ahead with the upgrade to Windows 10 to get rid of the annoying nagware messages in notification area to upgrade. I was going to have one internal disk as primary backup, and the external as a secondary.

 

I don't know though why Windows 10 thought there was something wrong with the internal J partition where I had my KeePass file... there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Bad sectors? BS! It was most likely a false positive. The disk is a brand new Western Digital Caviar Red 4 TB. But I did have a multiboot configured previously with both Windows and Linux. The CHKDSK may have picked up on some trace of those previous installations. I have noticed that the newer Windows versions are overly sensitive about this type of thing.

[Fractalogic]

Microsoft marketing campaign about the new Windows 10:

 

"Your files are right where you left them."

 

Yeah... right! Haha!