Fwd: geli recovery

[BSD Life]

Sry, didn't sent to the list (googles webmail sucks ...)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: BSD Life <bsd4life at googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:29:56 +0100
Subject: Re: geli recovery
To: Alaksiej C <ac at belngo.info>

2010/1/21, Alaksiej C <ac at belngo.info>:
> Your data is lost.
>
> Explanation: some BIOSes do backup themselves on "unused" drives, at
> the end of the HDD space (Google for "Host Protected Area"). The
> criteria for detecting "unused" drive is first sector's contents
> (AFAIK): is it MBR or not.
>
> When you inserted your drive to that Windows box, BIOS decided it is
> not used (no MB and backed itself up to it. As GELI's control block is
> residing at the end of encrypted container, it is gone forever.
>
> So, it's neither GELI's nor Windows bug, it is just dangerous BIOSes'
> feature.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Alaksiej
>

Ok, that sounds resonable, so I should always backup the metadata of a
disc for such cases. If I had a backup, I could just use the "geli
restore" functionality and it would be fine again, right?

Anyway, thanks for your answer.