First of all let me introduce myself. I've been into *nix systems for 6 by now. So I do understand how does things work inside. Though this time I've got a problem that I need your help with.

There is a device running debian live. The whole machine is a game simulator. It has 160gb hdd containing 3 partions. the third one contains game-related software and other closed-source staff. I AM NOT TRYING TO OPEN IT!

The problem is following: My friends gives that machines for rent, and one of the users probably attempted opening that LUKS encrypted partition. So now it just wont boot saying it was unable to mount the encrypted partition.

We do have 2 hdd with the same problem and one booting just ok. The system itself also uses an external usb key. We tried changing keys and hdd's between machines. Alive system boots on any of them, regardless of the key. Two "corrupted" are still unable to boot.

The manufacturer said that the partition can close itself when accessed in "illegal way" (other pc, etc) and that is done to protect their code.

I need your help in this: Could it work out if I do dd of the entire "alive" drive. and dd it to the damaged ones? Is it possible that this operation can be detected by their software? Again I'm not interested in their code at all. We just need to bring it back to live.

Is there any other problems I can meet while doing dd of such system? Can it get unbootable?

P.S. We would just contact the manufacturer but we are located in south Ukraine and just shipping it back is way to expensive for us to afford. I will appreciate any opinion or maybe some of you had some similar problem.

Thanks for attention

I am not an expert, but this seems to mean that the manufacturer has implemented some kind of software which deletes all the available keys or overwrites the header of the LUKS device. It is supposed to be an unrecoverable method unless you have backed up the headers.

If you just boot a reliable Live system which does not try to mount the partitions by default, then the dd operation you suggest should be possible and undetectable by software means. No guarantees are given, though.

You should ask this question to the provider and ensure it is legal, anyway.