External Hard Drives Not Showing Veracrypt

[JEXIF]

My external drives are not showing in Exiftool GUI in Windows 11. They are encrypted using Veracrypt and show in This PC and Windows Explorer however they do not show in Exiftool GUI. I have no way to access them

Does anyone know how to fix this?

[JEXIF]

I tried moving the Exiftool GUI to the encrypted hard drive and run from there. It now shows the drives. Very strange

[FrankB]

I have no experience with Veracrypt. Can you provide details about that software?

I cant imagine it should make any difference where GUI was started from.

What version of GUI are yo using? Please use the latest version: https://github.com/FrankBijnen/ExifToolGui/releases/tag/V6.3.6

You mention moving GUI to the external drive. That makes me think you're using the portable version. Is that true?

[StarGeek]

I have no experience with Veracrypt. Can you provide details about that software?

Copying from the Wikipedia page

VeraCrypt is a free and open-source utility for on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). The software can create a virtual encrypted disk that works just like a regular disk but within a file. It can also encrypt a partition or (in Windows) the entire storage device with pre-boot authentication.

VeraCrypt is a fork of the discontinued TrueCrypt project.

[JEXIF]

Thank you for the reply. I can not find the installer and I am using the latest .zip portable version from the website. I may have installed in the past. Is there a separate installation to using the GUI version?

Veracrypt is an open source encryption software that I use to encrypt a hard drive. It does change how it mounts in Windows but all my software can see this. ExiftoolGUI for some reason can not see the drives if launching from the C: drive as a portable version. If I move the ExiftoolGUI software to the actual external drive it seems to work. This issue is okay for now.

I am however having issues on a separate laptop that has Veracrypt encrypting the system drive. This is similar to how Bitlocker works. On this laptop I receive the error:

ERROR: ExifTool not found! Metadata operations disabled.

Is there an installation I need to do before using the GUI? I am finding it difficult to locate files on the website. If there is an installation I need to use is there a link for the file?

Thank you for any help you can provide

[FrankB]

Thank you for the reply. I can not find the installer and I am using the latest .zip portable version from the website. I may have installed in the past. Is there a separate installation to using the GUI version?

It looks like you have 2 things mixed up.
Exiftool is provided as a zip file: https://exiftool.org/exiftool-13.12_64.zip
ExifToolGui is provided as an installer, and as portable EXE: https://github.com/FrankBijnen/ExifToolGui/releases/tag/V6.3.6

In GUI click Help/Check Versions. You should see this:

Veracrypt is an open source encryption software that I use to encrypt a hard drive. It does change how it mounts in Windows but all my software can see this. ExiftoolGUI for some reason can not see the drives if launching from the C: drive as a portable version. If I move the ExiftoolGUI software to the actual external drive it seems to work. This issue is okay for now.

Ok. Very good.

I am however having issues on a separate laptop that has Veracrypt encrypting the system drive. This is similar to how Bitlocker works. On this laptop I receive the error:

ERROR: ExifTool not found! Metadata operations disabled.

If you see this message GUI was unable to start ExifTool. There are 2 known causes.

1) ExifTool is not installed, or not installed in a path where GUI can find it. To resolve this I recommend installing ExifTool in a directory that is on your PATH.
If you install ExifTool using the installer provided by Oliver Betz, or using the GUI installer you have the option to add ExifTool to your PATH. Please use that. Note: You can start the installer again without uninstalling first.


2) You have selected a 'directory' in GUI that is not really a directory, and can not be used as a working directory. Examples are Zip, RAR files or phones that show up as and MTP device in windows explorer.

You could try this, but as I already said I have no experience with VeraCrypt.

Open ExifToolGui. Dismiss any error messages it produces.
Open your folder/directory in Windows Explorer.

Drag and Drop from Windows Explorer to GUI. Gui should now open the directory.

[FrankB]

I did the exercise of installing VeraCrypt and encrypting the C drive of my development system. And ExifToolGui has no problems.
Very likely you're problems are caused by something else.

Note: I made a backup before and that has been restored. I'm not keeping VeraCrypt!
Frank

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Frank,

I did the exercise of installing VeraCrypt and encrypting the C drive of my development system.

Wow.  That's above and beyond!  I wouldn't advise expending such effort on conflicts with other software like this.

- Phil

[FrankB]

My computer did all the hard work.

I'm using Virtualbox machines to carry out these tests. Would never run that on a physical machine.

(Available on Mac)

[obetz]

I did the exercise of installing VeraCrypt and encrypting the C drive of my development system.

It's rather unlikely that Windows behaves differently when running from an encrypted volume, I suspect much simpler explanations, not related to Veracrypt.

[JEXIF]

Thank you for checking this. I am running ExiftoolGUI from a folder so I believe it is the portable version. You just click the .exe within the folder and it opens like most other portable software. There is an About section under Program and the version is v5.16 with Exiftool v12.70. My newer laptop says the Exiftool is missing and shows this when I open:

ERROR: ExifTool not found! Metadata operations disabled.

It seems like I need to also install Exiftool but can only find .zip version. Where is there installer? It has been years since I have used this software so obviously forgotten about this. I will read through the website again.


On my other laptop (with the correction installation of Exiftool) I do not have encryption on the system drive. I have a full Vercrypt encryption of an external drive connected by USB. This drive does not show in the folder list in ExifToolGUI unless you move the portable version and run from the actual external drive. I am not sure what is causing this to happen. External drives do mount slightly differently from Veracrypt. For example they show in This PC area of Windows Explorer but not on the left column. Maybe this is causing the issue. For some reason ExiftoolGUI does not show all the drives when you click This PC within the ExiftoolGUI software. It also does not show the drive in the left column.

[Phil Harvey]

I suggest you just run ExifToolGUI from the Veracrypt drive.  I don't think it is worthwhile spending more time working on this since it is the only time I have ever seen the problem, and the work-around is so easy.

- Phil

[FrankB]

I suggest you just run ExifToolGUI from the Veracrypt drive.

If that works for the OP, I agree.

There is an About section under Program and the version is v5.16 with Exiftool v12.70. My newer laptop says the

But.... You are running an unsupported version of GUI. The current version is V6.3.6. and you can download it here.
https://github.com/FrankBijnen/ExifToolGui/releases/tag/V6.3.6

I recommend to use the installer, and check the option to download and install ExifTool. See the screenshot above.

Frank

[Phil Harvey]

You are running an unsupported version of GUI.

I should have paid closer attention.  Of course the first thing to check is if the new version fixes this.

- Phil