Accessing Old HD with FileVault?

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Hi, bit of an odd one - I've recently picked up a SATA dock so I could rescue all the info off my old macbooks that I thought was long lost. I have managed to back up a ton of my old art and writing from a couple of them but my 2008 Macbook is proving a problem. The dock reads the drive no problem and mounts it on my desktop just like it does for all the others, but when I go to the user folder where all my data should be (where it is on all the others), I find it completely empty. I checked for hidden files and found only one called ".autodiskmounted" and nothing else. It also shows another hidden user folder with the same username as mine but a fullstop in front - and it's also empty except for the file "username.sparsebundle". The "Guest" folder in the same area has the standard documents for guests in it, it's only mine (and the hidden one like mine) that are largely empty.

The only thing I can think might be an issue was that this Macbook was encrypted with FileVault back in the day - even so, I imagined the files would be there, just hidden or password protected? There's no indication on how I might access these files or even where they might be hidden. If anybody can help me I would be really grateful.
 

Cory Cooper

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Hello and welcome.

Yes, that sounds like a FileVault-encrypted drive, since you don't see any files in the Users folder. Personally, I never recommend using FileVault for issues such as this. If the FileVault image becomes even the slightest bit corrupted, there is no way to recover data.

That said, it is my understanding that you should be able to "unlock" the FileVault-encrypted disk using Finder or Disk Utility. I have never done it, and I am not sure that is the case. When it mounts, it should prompt you for the FileVault password. If it doesn't, then it is either not using FileVault, or there may be an issue with the drive.

I will look around and see if I can find any additional information about it and get back to you.

C
 

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