iMac Yosemite Install Issue

[iMac7i]

I have been working with on line and apple store support for about a month regarding Yosemite upgrade failure that locked me out of my user files. Air Port Time Capsule back ups also failed. Legacy File Vault issues are suggested as the user.sparsebundles would not "melt". Pre Yosemite and Post Yosemite sparse bundles seem to suffer the same failure ....
Anyone else have a similar issue?

 

[chscag]

Not much to go on, but this much we know... that FileVault is troublesome. I realize there may be reasons for using it to protect sensitive data, however, it should be turned off before doing any upgrades, even simple ones. If you're looking for solutions here, you won't find any that will help to restore your data.

 

[iMac7i]

Thanks for the fast input.

I never set up, unless I did it be accident or miss understanding, the legacy File Vault
I was told by Apple, only is designed to encrypt the user files ..

I was told by Apple that the Yosemite has a default to offer the newer File Vault
that encrypts the whole Disc. Also told I must of hit return to load it.

I have been using for back ups the Apple...
Air Port Time Capsule
Serial Number C86L89WF9H5
Model A1479
Part Number ME177LL/A
...Since Feb 2014

All back up user.sparsebundle would not verify repair or mount ...

So .... I am likely up the creek due to some interaction of Yosemite and my iMAC
Processor 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB
2 T HD (Option from Apple when I had them build the machine)

 

[chscag]

Yeah, unfortunately there's not much you can do to recover. It looks like you've been snake bit by a double whammy. Both your hard drive and the sparse bundle are unrecoverable. Not even a data recovery service would be able to untangle it because of FileVault. I hope you had your data stored elsewhere so as to recover some of it.

 

[iMac7i]

Apple suggested I work with .....

Drive Savers Service

DriveSavers Data Recovery | Who Will You Trust With Your Data?

Anyone have any comments or selection for HD encryption recovery services?

Apple Store did a fairly heavy HW test of my system and HD and could find no faults.

They did pull my HD and replace it so my iMAC now works (without my files)

Apple support has given my problem many hours and guidance and I cannot fault them.

However I have 7 + year files and 22,000 family photos that I have lost and wife is not happy. Given the 9-11 encryption breakers must have some kick as$% tools ... some service must be able to pick through the Apple file vault ....

 

[chscag]

I hope for your sake that Drive Savers can untangle your data. Make sure you tell them exactly what you've told Apple before you commit yourself to having them recover your data. They're very expensive to use, and there are no guarantees they will be able to recover everything, or for that matter anything. Keep us posted.

 

[chas_m]

This is a story I've heard many times before ... people who set up Filevault nearly always come to regret it. I haven't tried the newer Filevault 2 that comes with later Macs so I can't comment on it, but the first version was so prone to corruption/forgotten passwords/users not knowing what they're doing/etc that I never saw any good reason to use it.

To the best of my knowledge this has nothing to do with Yosemite ... what OS version did you upgrade from? The problem here is Filevault, though perhaps you could attach those backups to an older Mac (or older OS X system), and restore them ... maybe ...