“Is there any possibility to recover data from a 256-bit encrypted NAS HDD?”

(Answer requested by ZeeForce Gaming)

Encrypted files are still just 1s and 0s.

So, if you’re talking about recovering encrypted files after a crash, hardware failure, or something similar, you may be able to lift the encrypted bits off the defective drive using utterly normal data/disk-recovery software, and write the still-encrypted data to a working drive. You can then set up whatever encryption software the bad drive was previously using, and apply the normal passphrase/key/whatever to decrypt the recovered files in the normal way.

But if you’re asking about cracking 256-bit encryption in any of the major flavors (AES, 3DES, RSA, TwoFish, whatever…), it’s probably not gonna happen. In practical terms, the data is locked away forever.

The one possible way around this is if the encryption was done by the drive hardware itself, rather than by the main operating system or by an separate app: If it’s a “self-encrypting” hard drive, the manufacturer might — might — be able to provide a decryption key. But I wouldn’t count on it.

For future reference, let me tell you about these wonderful things called backups… 🙂

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