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I'm trying to recover data from an old hard-drive.
It is installed with Ubuntu and the home directory is encrypted, and I don't have the passphrase for ecryptfs tools. So as I thought that maybe I could add it as an extra boot source and use user/pass.
When I tried to boot an old laptop of mine with this HDD, all I got was a stuck blinking _. Maybe I need to add it to GRUB ???

I should mention that I'm using an adapter to connect it to via usb.

I'm not sure how to move on with it..

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  • If you don't have the passphrase the data is lost. Sure you don't have the passphrase? It's usually saved on the same drive in the folder /home/.ecryptfs/$USER/.ecryptfs (might need root to access it).
    – pLumo
    Sep 11, 2018 at 7:59
  • Why can't it be booted with a new computer? Did the old computer had something extra to help it decipher the data? Sep 11, 2018 at 8:02
  • Yes, if the passphrase is missing, the passphrase is missing! But if you have this passphrase which is usually stored on the same drive, you can just mount the encrypted folder without booting from the hard drive.
    – pLumo
    Sep 11, 2018 at 8:03
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    Possible duplicate of Encrypted Home... Forgotten Password, but no Passphrase
    – pLumo
    Sep 11, 2018 at 8:07
  • The eCryptfs scripts tell you to save the actual mount passphrase too (but the message may not be seen with some gui tools or installs), just in case you forget the login passphrase or the wrapped-passphrase becomes corrupted. If you have the mount passphrase there's still hope
    – Xen2050
    Sep 12, 2018 at 1:26

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