Data Recovery in Despair

[nddj]

Hello to all forum residents.
I have almost given up on my data, but if anyone knows of anything I should still do, please let me know.
The stupidest thing I did this time was to lose my encrypted KEY. I rebuilt the system due to a boot drive failure and when I went to decrypt it, I realized that the json file with the key had been accidentally deleted. Is this the end of everything? The encryption format is AES-256-GCM. I am stupid. I am stupid, I ...

 

[winnielinnie]

Did you at any point backup/export the "config" file? (It's usually in a .tar file format.)

Do you by chance have the exported keyfile (.json file) saved anywhere else? USB stick? Laptop? Cloud?

Did you use passphrase format in any of your child datasets? Or was this one parent encryptionroot inherited by all datasets?

 

[nddj]

Did you at any point backup/export the "config" file? (It's usually in a .tar file format.)

Do you by chance have the exported keyfile (.json file) saved anywhere else? USB stick? Laptop? Cloud?

Did you use passphrase format in any of your child datasets? Or was this one parent encryptionroot inherited by all datasets?

I had backed up the config file, but neglected to label the USB flash drive on which this was stored, and a family member formatted it.

For the same reason as above, we also lost the key file in .json format.

It was inherited from the parent and everything is encrypted.

 

[winnielinnie]

I had backed up the config file, but neglected to label the USB flash drive on which this was stored, and a family member formatted it.

For the same reason as above, we also lost the key file in .json format.

It was inherited from the parent and everything is encrypted.

If all the above is true, then it's impossible to recover your data. The encryption is working as intended. No access without the key (or passphrase if relevant.)

The only other longshot attempt would be to somehow retrieve the freenas-v1.db and pwenc_secret files from the original boot-pool / drive(s). (If such drive(s) still exist and were not reformatted or wiped.)

and a family member formatted it.

Another longshot is to use a data recovery tool (like GetDataBack or Photorec) to retrieve the files from the formatted USB, as long as no data was physically written over the sectors that previously had those files. If the stick was barely used, there might be a chance.

 

[nddj]

If all the above is true, then it's impossible to recover your data. The encryption is working as intended. No access without the key (or passphrase if relevant.)

The only other longshot attempt would be to somehow retrieve the freenas-v1.db and pwenc_secret files from the original boot-pool / drive(s). (If such drive(s) still exist and were not reformatted or wiped.)



Another longshot is to use a data recovery tool (like GetDataBack or Photorec) to retrieve the files from the formatted USB, as long as no data was physically written over the sectors that previously had those files. If the stick was barely used, there might be a chance.

As you said, we are investigating the possibility of recovering the SSD that contained the original boot-pool. As for the USB drive, I've almost given up on recovering it, as it was used to move video data several times...