Distributed Life

I am having some problems with my hard-drive, so I was trying to backup my data the reside on my encrypted (the default Ubuntu encryption) home directory.

Ubuntu 11.04 offers a command (ecryptfs-recover-private) that help you perform this operation easily. Simply follow the steps:

1. Boot Ubuntu 11.04 with a live-cd or usb.
2. Mount the partition that includes the encrypted directory. You can easily do this by selecting Places -> PartitionName.
3. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal).
4. Run

   sudo ecryptfs-recover-private

   sudo ecryptfs-recover-private

You will be prompted to enter the password that corresponds to the user of this partition. After this, the partition should be mounted at a folder indicated by the output of the command.