Please help! [how to recover encrypted disk image]

[msingerf]

Hi, i had an encrypted (had password) disk image i created in disk utility with all of my childhood and marriage pictures, had an icon for it in my desktop and i accidentaly deleted it and also deleted the trashcan things afterwards (didn't notice i deleted it by then)
is there any way i can get it back?
i don't use time machine btw

 

[Weaselboy]

You can try file recovery utilities like Disk Warrior ($$). If that fails there are companies out there that will try and restore data like this for a fee... and it is not cheap.

Stop using the computer until you recover the files if you can. The more you use the computer the more chance there is the deleted file will be overwritten by new data.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Tough lesson to learn, you told the universe they weren't really that important since you had zero backups or copies of them anywhere. And it took you at your word.
Did you imagine that your Mac would never go wrong? Or could be stolen?
Not much use to you but might cause someone else who thinks his Mac is invincible to rethink.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi, i had an encrypted (had password) disk image i created in disk utility with all of my childhood and marriage pictures, had an icon for it in my desktop and i accidentaly deleted it and also deleted the trashcan things afterwards (didn't notice i deleted it by then)
is there any way i can get it back?
i don't use time machine btw

Can't remember who said it, but if digital data doesn't exist in at least three places it doesn't really exist. I run TM back up and Carbon Copy clone on a separate HD.

Good luck with the recovery.

 

[jdechko]

Can't remember who said it, but if digital data doesn't exist in at least three places it doesn't really exist. I run TM back up and Carbon Copy clone on a separate HD.

Good luck with the recovery.

3-2-1 Backup Rule:

3 copies of your data
2 different media (hard drive, optical, flash, online, tape)
1 offsite (cloud, safe deposit box or rotate a drive to a friend/ relative's house or your office)

The last one is really important. It's great having multiple copies on hard drives in your home, but it doesn't necessarily protect against fires, theft or natural disasters.

 

[Apple fanboy]

3-2-1 Backup Rule:

3 copies of your data
2 different media (hard drive, optical, flash, online, tape)
1 offsite (cloud, safe deposit box or rotate a drive to a friend/ relative's house or your office)

The last one is really important. It's great having multiple copies on hard drives in your home, but it doesn't necessarily protect against fires, theft or natural disasters.

Drawer at work here. Don't really trust online for important stuff. But that's just me.

 

[brand]

Drawer at work here. Don't really trust online for important stuff. But that's just me.

Thats where pre-Internet encryption comes into play. Then you don't have to trust them.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Thats where pre-Internet encryption comes into play. Then you don't have to trust them.

Tell that to the users on megaupload.com

 

[jdechko]

Drawer at work here. Don't really trust online for important stuff. But that's just me.

Thats where pre-Internet encryption comes into play. Then you don't have to trust them.

Tell that to the users on megaupload.com

I think the question here is what kind of trust are we talking about? There are 2 kinds of trust: Trust that the company won't snoop on your data and trust in the backups themselves.

Trusting that the backups are valid (and not corrupted) is one thing. Technology should be sufficiently advanced that the data you back up is secure. A good backup provider should periodically verify the that the hash hasn't changed. They should also provide some level of redundancy in your data (backups of your backups).

Trusting that the company won't snoop your data is a little different, but, I feel it's addressed by a few things. First, most services encrypt the data before transmitting. In order to trust that they aren't actively trying to decrypt it, I have to think that they are in the business of users trusting them. If they were found out to be violating that trust, there would be a major consumer backlash, and people would cease to use their service.

Second part of this type of trust is whether or not the data is turned over to the government. Regardless of whether I think it's right or wrong for the alphabet soups (hint: wrong), if the government want's your data, they're going to get it. An encrypted disk locked in a filing cabinet at your office is easily as vulnerable as stored online.

It's unfortunate for the users that Mega was under investigation for copyright (even though Mega existed largely for sharing copyright media), but the data stored there should never have been the only copy of that data in the first place. It's not a backup if it doesn't exist somewhere else. There is some personally responsibility that needs to take place to a) keep multiple copies and b) at least be aware of the news surrounding services you subscribe to.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I think the question here is what kind of trust are we talking about? There are 2 kinds of trust: Trust that the company won't snoop on your data and trust in the backups themselves.

Trusting that the backups are valid (and not corrupted) is one thing. Technology should be sufficiently advanced that the data you back up is secure. A good backup provider should periodically verify the that the hash hasn't changed. They should also provide some level of redundancy in your data (backups of your backups).

Trusting that the company won't snoop your data is a little different, but, I feel it's addressed by a few things. First, most services encrypt the data before transmitting. In order to trust that they aren't actively trying to decrypt it, I have to think that they are in the business of users trusting them. If they were found out to be violating that trust, there would be a major consumer backlash, and people would cease to use their service.

Second part of this type of trust is whether or not the data is turned over to the government. Regardless of whether I think it's right or wrong for the alphabet soups (hint: wrong), if the government want's your data, they're going to get it. An encrypted disk locked in a filing cabinet at your office is easily as vulnerable as stored online.

It's unfortunate for the users that Mega was under investigation for copyright (even though Mega existed largely for sharing copyright media), but the data stored there should never have been the only copy of that data in the first place. It's not a backup if it doesn't exist somewhere else. There is some personally responsibility that needs to take place to a) keep multiple copies and b) at least be aware of the news surrounding services you subscribe to.

I have no issue on the government snooping on my data. I don't have anything I'm worried about them seeing, and I don't really care about privacy etc. if anybody wants to look through my photos they are going to get pretty bored pretty quick.
For me it's more about being in control of my own data. I want to make sure that I have a secure backup plan and be able to check its working etc.

 

[jdechko]

For me it's more about being in control of my own data. I want to make sure that I have a secure backup plan and be able to check its working etc.

Fair enough. I'm comfortable enough knowing that there are redundant backups of my most important data, even if one copy isn't entirely in my control. Once again, though, this thread shows that it's important to have at least one backup copy.

 

[Fishrrman]

My opinion only, but I'd like to add something.

Is it really necessary to encrypt things like wedding and marriage pictures?

I understand that there are valid reasons to encrypt one's data.

But the OP's plight illustrates a problem with adding encryption: if things go wrong, it can make data retrieval FAR more difficult if not impossible.

I realize this is a prime objective of encryption in the first place, but if you have data that is important to you, it's best to keep it backed up in a format that will make emergency recovery EASY.

If the data is sensitive, keep the drive that contains it in a locked container in a secure location.

But one can be "too clever by half" and lock one's self out of their own data, as the OP has done!

 

[marvinroy]

1. Boot off of the OSX Bootup CD that you created. It may take up to 15 minutes to fully boot from the CD, so go have a cup of coffee.
2. Connect to the source (network share, firewire drive, etc) that has the image (see step 15 above).
3. Open NetRestore
4. Drag and drop your DMG image file to the source field
5. Select HardDisk (or whatever the hard drive's name is) for target
6. Check all options
7. Hold down the Apple and Shift keys and press the P key to set post restore options
8. Give the target computer a name. You can also specify an open firmware password.
9. Click on Restore
10. The computer will restart after the restore. I recommend doing a subsequent restart especially if the computer is configured to authenticate via LDAP.

 

[Weaselboy]

1. Boot off of the OSX Bootup CD that you created. It may take up to 15 minutes to fully boot from the CD, so go have a cup of coffee.
2. Connect to the source (network share, firewire drive, etc) that has the image (see step 15 above).
3. Open NetRestore
4. Drag and drop your DMG image file to the source field
5. Select HardDisk (or whatever the hard drive's name is) for target
6. Check all options
7. Hold down the Apple and Shift keys and press the P key to set post restore options
8. Give the target computer a name. You can also specify an open firmware password.
9. Click on Restore
10. The computer will restart after the restore. I recommend doing a subsequent restart especially if the computer is configured to authenticate via LDAP.

OP deleted an encrypted disk image and now is trying to recover it. I am not following at all how what you described would help with that. Or am I missing something?

 

[jdechko]

My opinion only, but I'd like to add something.

Is it really necessary to encrypt things like wedding and marriage pictures?

I understand that there are valid reasons to encrypt one's data.

But the OP's plight illustrates a problem with adding encryption: if things go wrong, it can make data retrieval FAR more difficult if not impossible.

I realize this is a prime objective of encryption in the first place, but if you have data that is important to you, it's best to keep it backed up in a format that will make emergency recovery EASY.

If the data is sensitive, keep the drive that contains it in a locked container in a secure location.

But one can be "too clever by half" and lock one's self out of their own data, as the OP has done!

On top of the encryption, there' also the fact that it was in a disk image file instead of individual files. In my experience with file recovery, if a single bit has been overwritten, then the file can't be recovered. Encryption further compounds that. If the files had been kept separate, then the OP could have at least recovered the undamaged files.