Unformating encrypted HDD - TrueCrypt (password known)

Piroha

Honorable
May 11, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hi guys,

I have an interesting (for me really sad :( ) issue for you to resolve. I changed my PC but I have kept my SSD (Crucial m4 120GB). The new laptop (actually is from 2007, just temporary) had win XP pre-installed, but only on 5400rpm HDD so I changed it for my SSD. While trying to install WinXP I accidently formated (not quick format, it took 6 hrs) my external WD MyBook 2TB connected via USB. It happend because installer could not see the SSD and I have not noticed the wrong size... The installer probably copied its instalation files on it but it never installed the OS. As you might have figured out, I want to unformat, but that is not where the problem is. Whole MyBook was encrypted via TrueCrypt with Serpent-AES with 26 character password (numbers, lower/upper-case letters, special signs). I remember the password.
Additional infomration is, that I do not want whole data. I want just the photos (up to 30GB) and my audiobook collection (up to 120GB). Other data was some music, documents, whatever unimportant stuff... Now I use the laptop with the SSD and Win8 32-bit. I disconnected MyBook right after the PC shuted down and havent connect it since.
The question is - How to?

P.S.: I would be really unhappy loosing this data, so I decided to give symbolic 20€ as Thank-You-Reward on PayPal for an advice, which will solve it. If the winner refuses to take it, it will be donated to local charity.
 
You formatted an encrypted drive, and then wrote files to it. Sorry, but the encrypted data is permanently irretrievable. Once the container is broken like that you will never be able to put it back together. You've just learned an important lesson, the hard way, about the importance of backups.