I have a problem accessing the files of a Linux mint 11 home folder from a different hard drive, I'm sure all files are there. I'm trying to access the files of a Hard drive that has Linux Mint 11 installed while using another hard drive with Linux Mint 13 installed. I have three partitions one is /boot, /root, and /home all partitions get mounted fine, but whe I open the Home folder, or just most folders they all appear empty (I've tried opening it as administrator, and selected "show hidden files"). I'm not sure if this might be an encryption problem since I don't remember if when I installed Linux Mint 11 I selected to encrypt home folder or not, if that's the problem how can I decrypt it so I can access my files? there's a text file in the Home folder that says:

"THIS DIRECTORY HAS BEEN UNMOUNTED TO PROTECT YOUR DATA.

From the graphical desktop, click on:
"Access Your Private Data"

or

From the command line, run:
ecryptfs-mount-private"

^I've tried doing this and it didn't work either.

Also when I open the home partition there's a folder named ".encryptfs"

If that's not the problem, what do you suggest the problem might be? Again i'm 100% sure the files are there, I just don't understand why they are not showing up. I'd really appreciate any help to try to help me recover my files. thanks in advance.

Oh sh*t.
You have encrypted the directory and can't remember the key ("password").
If that is the case, you've lost.
Only thing I can think of is that you boot from that Mint 11, f you're very very lucky the partitions will be unencrypted automatically - or you'll get a prompt asking for password and then you actually remember it...

I'm connecting your 2 questions now, this one and http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...on-4175452479/
So your /home is encrypted, that's the problem.
I'm sad to tell you that if you don't know the key then you have lost everything on the encrypted partition.
There's no way to retrieve it - that's kinda the idea with encryption!

But I DO remember the password!! I just don't know how to decrypt the files.

And I've had the same issue of not having those files showing up when opening them from a different hard drive way before I stopped being able to log in to Linux Mint 11. they are two separate problems

Nevermind I was just able to resolve this problem, I had to install encryptf-utils and from there just run a command encryptfs-recover-private and voila! it found the folder and asked me for password and after that it got mounted. But I still have problems logging into Linux Mint 11, check out my other thread and see if you can help me out please. thanks for your replies.