File integrity in encrypted drives,"Detect file information"

[worriedjacket]

In the surface test view clicking the checkbox at the bottom results in: "Error: Unable to detect partition / logical drive information". That means the surface test cannot show which files are affected if an encrypted drive has issues.

How would one ensure file integrity?

1. One day HD Sentinel reports weak sectors
2. I run a surface test, there are some
3. Replace the whole drive immediately
4. Copy data from the backup drive to the new one

But what if your backup drive starts failing simultaneously because you bought it at the same time?
How would you know which drive has 100% file integrity?

I really like the "Detect file information" feature, but we need to use encryption. What would you do as a professional? Is there a standard approach to file integrity?

[hdsentinel]

> In the surface test view clicking the checkbox at the bottom results in: "Error: Unable to detect partition / logical drive information".
> That means the surface test cannot show which files are affected if an encrypted drive has issues.

Not really.
During the running surface test (if the disk drive is a secondary drive, unmounted during the test to prevent access of file system and file-system related information) it is normal that the partition/logical drive is not accessible, so the file information detection is not available during the test.
When the test completed (or stopped), the partition(s) are mounted automatically again - and then the file information detection is possible again.

Hard Disk Sentinel can automatically perform the detection of affected files and reporting which files(s)/folder(s) are stored in damaged (yellow) or unreadable (red) sectors - at the end of the test. To enable this, please select Disk menu -> Surface test and before starting the test, select "Configuration" tab and enable "Detect file information for sectors with errors" before starting the test itself.

So I'd recommend to please wait the end of the test - as when the partition is generally available for reading, the file system information may likely work on the drive. Alternativaly, if the test stopped, you can select Disk menu -> Surface test function, but instead of starting a test on the corresponding hard disk drive, select View and click on the disk surface map (the small boxes) to inspect the raw contents of any sector and detect file information related to that sector.

If things even not working this way, then it is possible that the partition(s) may be damaged/cleared and/or something may prevent accesing the file system information. I'd recommend to please use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option.


> But what if your backup drive starts failing simultaneously because you bought it at the same time?

Before using any drive (even for backup) I'd recommend to perform intensive testing, as described at
https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
to confirm that the drive is perfectly used - or reveal / stabilize problems before copying data on it.
If you perform the tests, confirm that the drive is perfect - then there should be no problems.

> How would you know which drive has 100% file integrity?

By the above mentioned tests.

The "detect file information" function designed to reveal problems on the affected sectors. Generally this should work if the partition information is accessible, the file system is mounted and working.

[worriedjacket]

It doesn't. I started and stopped, I never unmounted the partition at all. (Windows always has some lock on it anyway.)

>If things even not working this way, then it is possible that the partition(s) may be damaged/cleared and/or something may prevent accesing the file system information.

The disk is encrypted with https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html . That's why. My question was if there is some standard way of doing things . HD Sentinel checks the integrity of the actual disk, but it'd have been great to also know affected files in case something happened in the future.
Microsoft scandisk doesn't work either since it's all encrypted.

[hdsentinel]

> HD Sentinel checks the integrity of the actual disk, but it'd have been great to also know affected files in case
> something happened in the future. Microsoft scandisk doesn't work either since it's all encrypted.

This is the problem: if the whole file system is encrypted and it is not possible to access the file system descriptors / generic information about the volume (which is required in order to check the proper location of file fragments on the volume itself) then I'm afraid it is not possible to determine this kind of information.

Will check with Veracrypt about the possibilities with more details.
Did you create an encrypted volume file with Veracrypt? Or did you encrypt complete partition/drive with it?

[worriedjacket]

I understand that this might not be possible. Too bad, since that feature gives great peace of mind.

It is a single fully encrypted partition on a GPT disk. HD Sentinel can see the MBR, nothing after that. Microsoft's partition tool shows it as RAW, another tool says the drive is unformatted.

For backup purposes I cannot leave it unencrypted. Veracrypt is the standard tool, like LUKS on Linux.

The rest of the OS sees it as a normal NTFS drive, fully transparent.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks, I see.

Yes, I completely understand the situation. But as the encryption tool uses special format / container, we can't detect the file descriptors / file system information. This is why other tools also show RAW or unformatted - as they also (like the file information detection function) can't recognise such file system information.

Will examine the possibilities and may discuss with Veracrypt developers about the situation and will try the best, but I'm not sure there is a solution for this.