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TBird Portable upgrade has destroyed password-protected USB drive. HELP!!!

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October 13, 2012 - 11:28pm
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PDWSpock
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TBird Portable upgrade has destroyed password-protected USB drive. HELP!!!

PortableApps asked me to upgrade TBird Portable which I did. TBird then opened after saying u/g was complete and immediately crashed - with a notice that Tbird system cannot run and has crashed. I cannot remember the exact words because they flashed up and were gone so quickly, but it did explicitly say it was crashing.

Now, when I insert the USB (Toshiba 8GB PA3875 with LOCK password protection for hidden partition on which Portable is installed) I can input the password and a msg saying the partition is unlocked and accessible appears. However, it is not. The drive letter does not change to the unlocked partition and now what was a readable partition is no longer recognised and Windows asks me to format the drive. I am getting the same result on 2 Win7 machines and an XP machine.

So, given that I cannot access PortableApps at all, I cannot access my email or my Keepass. All the data I have on here is vital. Unfortunately, in the fog of a Sunday morning, half asleep with coffee in hand, I didn't back up before running the upgrade.

How do I get this up and running? Can I roll back the upgrade in some way?

Cheers, PDW

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October 13, 2012 - 11:41pm
John T. Haller
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Drive Errors

Apps can't cause drive errors, they happen on their own -- due to drive wear and tear, connection issues, etc -- while you happen to be using apps. And these errors aren't errors in the apps, they're actually issues with your drive itself. Take a deep breath, and let's dive in...

So, you'll need to see if the drive is even accessible first and then check to see if it just has logical errors that is causing it to be unreadable. You may need to contact the manufacturer for assistance as drives with lock/unlock partitions all work a bit differently.

Make sure you have your most recent backup handy. And, if you are able to access the drive at all, IMMEDIATELY back everything you can up from it. Don't write anything to it or run any apps on it.

Another option is try it on another PC as sometimes that can help. Slim chance, but a possibility.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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October 13, 2012 - 11:44pm
(Reply to #2)
Gord Caswell
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Linux

Also, if you have access to a Linux machine, try accessing the drive that way, as Linux machines occasionally have access to drives that are "inaccessible" from Windows.

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October 14, 2012 - 12:09am
(Reply to #3)
PDWSpock
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Linux for USB recovery

Hi, unfortunately I do not have access to a Linux machine but, yes, that route might throw up some more options.

Cheers, PDW

PDW

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October 14, 2012 - 12:08am
(Reply to #4)
PDWSpock
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Drive errors, TB Portable upgrade

Thx for the response.

I would observe that the drive has been working perfectly and the last message from it was PortableApps telling me TBird was crashing, immediately after it had performed the upgrade. It seems to me that the TB upgrade IS the cause and perhaps I am not expressing myself clearly re what a "drive error" is.

I can access the E drive which is the password "portal" to the usually hidden F drive. I keep nothing in this drive, but Portable Apps has put its .ini file there. So I can access E, disable the password and change the password, and input the correct password and get the "F drive is now unlocked and accessible" confirmation message. AOK on E drive up to this point.

Once the password is input, usually, E drive disappears, F drive appears and I can then boot up the PortableApps menu and launch TBird. At the moment, I cannot access F drive at all, the machine is still looking at E drive but now I cannot see the files that I could see before I input the password - the password utility has disappeared, PortableApps .ini folder and file has disappeared and Windows wants to format the E drive. So I have no access to F drive whatsoever so cannot back up anything at all.

If I reformat I think I will lose F drive.

Any more insights greatly appreciated.

Thx, PDW

PDW

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October 14, 2012 - 12:18am
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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Drive Issues

My point is that an app simply can't cause the type of errors you're talking about. It's technically impossible, unless the apps have somehow been built to take advantage of an exploit in your specific drive's firmware, which would be exceedingly unlikely. When a drive has errors, it will interrupt whatever is going on at that point and cause it to crash and show errors (your TB upgrade or running it after the upgrade in this case), which can often lead a user to assume that a given app caused the issue in the first place. But, it's not the case. Flash drives don't work in a way that an app installing or upgrading and just writing files with standard Windows commands can somehow 'break' them unless something is already wrong with them (or about to go wrong with them).

Something is wrong with your drive at either the logical level or physical level. This can be caused by a faulty USB connector on the drive shorting, a faulty USB port on a PC shorting, bad chips or connections within the drive itself, and similar things. It's more common with USB drives than users think, which is why we always recommend backing up. The question now is whether you can access your data on that secondary partition or not. I would suggest using a drive recovery software after you unlock it to see what, if anything, is still available. TestDisk may be able to re-find the partition and PhotoRec can sometimes find the files: http://www.cgsecurity.org/ Gord's suggestion to try it under Linux can help as well, but only if the proprietary unlocking utility has a Linux component, which is unlikely.

Good luck.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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October 14, 2012 - 12:34am
(Reply to #6)
PDWSpock
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Drive Issues

Hi again, sure, I appreciate and understand the point but I now seek a solution.

Admin tools in Win7 is now showing me the drive has switched to RAW format -ie no format!! So am scanning with a RAW partiton recovery tool which is showing that there are FAT files in there, supposedly and hopefully, for recovery. I will check out your link also.

Thx again,

PDW

PDW

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