GELI problem... Oh, I mean disaster

[Alex Karpovic]

Hello everyone,

I am a long-time user of geli encryption, but just today I faced a problem,
connected probably to some hardware malfunction, and I am in need of good
advice now.

I have a SATA drive, encrypted as whole with GELI. Booting is performed via
usbflash drive.

Today I tried to add an old IDE hdd, but when I turned my box on, loud
clicking sound informed me that the hdd is physically broken. OK, turned
computer off right after memory test, removed IDE hdd, and tried to boot as
usual. However, GELI is unable to recognize my encrypted SATA now!

I do bi-weekly backups, but in current situation it won't save me. I did a
lot of work recently, and deadline is so near, that I cannot recreate all
that is lost.
Therefore, my first question is evident: taking into account the situation,
is it possible that the damage is reversible? I know there's little hope,
but maybe it is just a signature, which could be re-written?
Second question is to feed my brain: what is the technical nature of my
problem? Before that, I never expirienced a damaging of good SATA caused by
attaching of bad IDE.

Alex