Encryption help

[craney5]

Hi everyone,

I was thinking of encrypting my external 320GB HD but was not sure how it exactly works. I have some things on the HD already, what i want to do is encrypt everything that goes on my external HD. I have heard truecrypt is a good peace of software but im a bit of a noob when it comes to trying to use it and would be really grateful for some helpfull advice.

If i manage to get this done would it be worth while encrypting my entire desktop HD? its 500gb in size and in 4 partitions. If i was to encrypt this would it slow down performance at all as it has to decrypt files as and when i want them?

Hope you can help

many thanks

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Once encrypted it won't slow down performance as it only encrypts data when the HDD is idle, the initial encryption though can take hours depending on the amount of data that is being encrypted.

Truecrypt is good and free.

I will see if i can find a tutorial for you - just DONT forget your encryption password and it might be worth testing the encryption on another drive (such as small USB stick first) you don't want to mess the encryption up and not be able access all your files

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

 

[Bill2]

In my experience Truecrypt is pretty easy to use. Here are a couple of tuts to get you started.

Getting Started with TrueCrypt (to Secure Your Data) - How-To Geek

Protect private data with Truecrypt - Tutorial 1 - Installation

Fot the intenal hdd, you can also considering setting up different types of users, then restrict access to specific drives.

 

[JDobbsy1987]

In my experience Truecrypt is pretty easy to use. Here are a couple of tuts to get you started.

Getting Started with TrueCrypt (to Secure Your Data) - How-To Geek

Protect private data with Truecrypt - Tutorial 1 - Installation

Fot the intenal hdd, you can also considering setting up different types of users, then restrict access to specific drives.

Cheers very much for the tuts

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

 

[craney5]

Many thanks for the responce guys. I have red and watched the tuts linked, one thing im not to sure on tho. If i want to encrypt my entire external hd which is 320gb how big do i need to make the file container? will this also encrypt the items i already have on the hd?

thanks so much again

 

[JDobbsy1987]

I don't think you have to create a container, its been a while since i last did a pen drive but maybe this guide will help Encrypting an USB Drive with True Crypt

***Remember***
Test on another drive first (a drive that if messed up can be re-formatted without you losing any files).

**EDIT**
Read it word for word, i think some of the selections in the screenshots are different to what they actually tell you to select.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Please remember that once encrypted not even the Holy Ghost (or any other agency earthly or spiritually) will be able to get access to your data if you lose your password.

These days I'm really not sure WHY you would need to encrypt data -- put all your private stuff on external drives so nobody has physical access to them -- that's a far better precaution than any amount of encryption -- no physical access -- no access period.

You can get nice small POCKET sized 1TB usb drives these days for a very small amount of money.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[craney5]

Just tried it on an old 2gb flash drive loads of stuff on it but nothing i need now anyway i selected the option to encrypt "a non partiton system drive" i see by default it selects the whole usb drive to format but i dont want to format the whole drive as i would lose everything on "my external hd the one i want to encrypt later". So im guessing if i want to do this i would have to take everything off the hd encrypt the whole 320gb then transfer everything back over?

 

[JDobbsy1987]

you can do it without copying the data off however this would be the more safe option with regards to loosing work.

At least if it goes wrong you still have the files

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Hi there
Please remember that once encrypted not even the Holy Ghost (or any other agency earthly or spiritually) will be able to get access to your data if you lose your password.

These days I'm really not sure WHY you would need to encrypt data -- put all your private stuff on external drives so nobody has physical access to them -- that's a far better precaution than any amount of encryption -- no physical access -- no access period.

You can get nice small POCKET sized 1TB usb drives these days for a very small amount of money.

Cheers
jimbo

I still see the need for encryption especially with portable drives, its far too easy for these devices to fall into the wrong hands.

 

[craney5]

Cheers matey i think i get it now. I didnt see the option under encypting a non system partition where you can encrypt the partition already in place . As for container files when you create a file container and you sepcify the size you want it to be i take it thats the size of the newly "encrypted virtual drive" so anything i choose to save on this virtual drive will be encypted. What was confusing me was a lot of the tuts where showing creating a container size of 1mb. You not going to be able to do a lot mounting a 1mb container file are you?

 

[JDobbsy1987]

You are correct, you will only be able to save up to 1mb in a 1mb container as the container doesn't compress files.

The only thing is...
If you create this on a FAT drive then you will not be able create a container bigger than 4GB as the FAT file system will not allow single file size's to be more than 4GB, if this is on an NTFS file system then it will be fine.

 

[craney5]

Thanks for that mate so im guessing if i dont want to encrypt my whole external HD which is NTFS i could just create say an 100GB container file and all my private info i could save in that container kinda straight forward really once you get your head around it lol. Will this mean tho if i want to access this info when i connect my hd to another machine it will have to have truecrypt installed on it? The thing is when you mount the file in truecrypt and it asks you for the password is the data "actually encrypted" or is this really just password protected data?

thanks again matey

 

[JDobbsy1987]

You will need truecrypt installed on any PC you connect your HDD too otherwise it will not recognize the encrypted area.

e.g.
If you have a 350GB hard drive and have a 100GB container then when you connect it to another computer you will be able see anything in the un-encrypted 250GB area but to see the 100GB area you will need to open TrueCrypt and enter the password.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

 

[craney5]

Cheers matey you have helped me out loads thanks a million!!!

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Not a problem

Have fun

 

[craney5]

Just one more quick thing, i am trying to create a backup image using both the windows 7 image backup & Macrium Reflect, the problem is when it searches for backup devices to save the image to my encrypted partition is not showing. I setup a file container of 293gb and left 4gb spare on the HD but its only showing the 4gb external hd drive letter D and not showing the mounted encrypted disk Z which is where i want to save the image to.

Any Ideas?

 

[Lemur]

You may want to create a new post for this...

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Just one more quick thing, i am trying to create a backup image using both the windows 7 image backup & Macrium Reflect, the problem is when it searches for backup devices to save the image to my encrypted partition is not showing. I setup a file container of 293gb and left 4gb spare on the HD but its only showing the 4gb external hd drive letter D and not showing the mounted encrypted disk Z which is where i want to save the image to.

Any Ideas?

Have you opened TrueCrypt and then put the password in to show the encrypted container?

If yes then create the image with a local disc and then copy the image file to the encrypted drive.

Regards,
JDobbsy1987

 

[craney5]

Thanks again for the responce mate, i have indeed mounted the container and enterted the password the only problem when trying to save the image to the local drive is it wont let me back up the partition i wish save it to. I have 4 partitions so if i ask it to save the image to "J which is my games partition" windows backup then wont let me back up the J partition.

thanks again