Using Truecrypt to Encrypt Your Entire Hard Drive

By Randy Jensen | Apr 29, 2008

If you’re as paranoid as I am, you more than likely appreciate the advancements that the TrueCrypt team has made with version 5.0. For me, the greatest thing they did was making whole disk encryption dead simple. Here’s how you do it.

Getting Started

  1. First you will need to visit the TrueCrypt site and download and install it on your system. I’m going to be using Windows XP for my demonstration, but they have since released very good and stable version for Mac OSX and Linux.
  2. Next, go ahead and open the main window by clicking on the TrueCrypt logo in the system tray. The window should look like this
    truecrypt whole disk encryption

Setting Up the Encryption Settings

  1. Click the the ‘Create Volume ‘ button
  2. On the next window, choose the radio button next to ‘Encrypt the system partition or entire system drive ‘truecrypt encrypt the system partition or entire drive
  3. You now have the option to ‘Encrypt the Windows system partition’ or ‘Encrypt the whole drive ‘. We will be choosing the latter for this example.truecrypt encrypt the whole drive
  4. For the next screen you can choose ‘Single Boot ‘ or ‘Multi-Boot’. More than likely you are only running one OS on your computer, so we will choose Single Boot.truecrypt encrypt the system partition or entire drive
  5. Now you can choose the encryption settings. Unless you really know what you are doing, the default settings are fine. AES is an incredibly powerful encryption algorithm and should be all you need. I would also leave the Hash Algorithm at RIPEMD-160
    truecrypt with AES and RIPEMD-160
  6. Next you will need to create a password. Depending on how paranoid you are, you should choose a passphrase close to 20 characters in length. I would also recommend using Steve Gibson’s Perfect Passwords Generator to make sure you create a completely unique phrase.
    truecrypt passphrase password random number generator
  7. Next you will need to move your mouse around the TrueCrypt window to create randomized data. This is fairly important, so spend a minute or two moving your mouse to make sure you really randomize things.
    truecrypt random number pool
  8. The next window should simply be showing you the keys that were generated for you. You can simply click next here.
    truecrypt generated keys

Creating the Rescue Disk

  1. The next step is to create what TrueCrypt calls the ‘Rescue Disk’. This disk will be used in case the boot loader or Windows become corrupt or infected with malware, yu will always have a way to decrypt the system. This step is extremely important, and TC will not let you proceed until it is satisfied that you did everything correctly. Begin by clicking the ‘Browse ‘ button. This will bring up a dialog box. Browse to your desktop and name the file something like rescueDisk.iso. IMPORTANT: remember to append the .iso or your file will not work correctly.
    truecrypt rescue disk
  2. You should now see a window telling you the file was created successfully. It’s now time to burn the newly created .iso file to a cd. I strongly recommend using ImgBurn . If for some reason that doesn’t work, you can use something like CD Burner XP Pro . Click next
    truecrypt iso recording imgburn
  3. Make sure you have a blank CD in your drive and open ImgBurn. Click on ‘Write image file to disc’
    truecrypt iso recording imgburn
  4. Next click on the ‘Browse for a file’ button
    truecrypt iso recording imgburn
  5. Finally click the giant ‘Write’ button towards the bottom
    truecrypt iso recording imgburn
  6. After you have the disc burned, leave it in the drive and click ‘Next’ in the TrueCrypt window
    truecrypt iso rescue disk verify
  7. If all went well you will be notified that the Rescue Disk was successfully verified
    truecrypt rescue disk successfully burned

Pretest and Installing the Bootloader

  1. You can choose to wipe the drive to really give you an incredibly secure hard drive, or just choose none if you aren’t storing government secrets on your computer (not that the government is intelligent enough to encrypt hard drives).
    truecrypt wipe mode
  2. Next TC will begin the pretest to make sure everything is in working order before it begins the encryption process. This will also install the TrueCrypt boot loader on the boot sector of your hard drive. This is a major reason why this encryption is so great. There is virtually no way to boot into the Windows file system without having the decryption key. Click ‘Test ‘
    truecrypt pretest boot sector
    A friendly warning:)
    truecrypt boot warning
  3. After TC runs a few things you will be presented with a window to restart. Click ‘Yes ‘
    truecrypt restart
  4. After the computer boots back up, you should see a black and white screen. Enter your passphrase you created earlier.
    truecrypt boot loader
  5. If all went well you will now see a new dialog box saying the pretest was completed successfully.
    truecrypt pretest completed successfully
  6. Click ‘OK’ on the Rescue Disk information window
    truecrypt rescue disk

Finally! Encrypting the Drive

  1. Whew! If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! We are now ready to encrypt the drive. You should see a window similar to the one below. Simply click the ‘Encrypt’ button and depending on your wipe mode and your encryption algorithms, go have a cup of coffee or go to sleep and let it run overnight.
    truecrypt begin the encryption
  2. When everything is done, you should see this
    truecrypt successfully encrypted

In Closing

If you were able to get through this tutorial, you should now feel much safer with your data knowing it’s now gone from incredibly insecure, to even the DOD or NSA would have trouble getting in (unless of course there was water boarding involved).

This is really helpful if you travel a lot and carry a laptop all the time. If something were to happen and it gets lost or stolen, yes, you lose the data but at least whoever has it can’t get it either. Of course this means we need some training in the art of backing up;)


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  • Lem21
    Hello,
    How would you deal with creating the truecrypt rescue disc on a netbook which does not contain an optical drive? I would like to avoid skipping this step if somehow the installation software could be tricked into thinking a rescue disc were created in the process and actually have a rescue disc on hand. Even with an external optical drive, how would you get the system to boot from this external USB connected optical drive, if that were needed? Is there some BART PE deal or BIOS change which might be required?

    thanks!
  • Hey Lem,

    I would create the iso (since you have too), then mount it virtually (I like Virtual Clone Drive which is free http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html). After you've done that and gotten past that step in TrueCrypt, backup the iso on an external hard drive or in the cloud somewhere. As long as you have the iso somewhere, if you ever need it, you have it.

    You can boot from an external USB drive in pretty much any of these netbooks. Just change the boot order in the BIOS as you would normally.

    Hope that helps
  • martusK
    Hi just found this through a search, I've been using Truecrypt file containers, I'd now like to put a whole load of data into a new file container but the drive is nearly full - can Truecrypt create a new file container that takes it over the size of the drive and then I move all the files into it? E.g. my drive is 500Gb and its got 400 GB already on it, so can I create a Truecrypt file container of 400GB (making it theoretically 800 GB now on the 500 GB drive) and then move the 400 gb into it??
    hope i've explained it and sorry if its a stupid question! (don't want to use Truecrypt to encrypt the whole drive and there's other stuff i want to leaver as it is there)
    Many thanks in advance
  • Hey martusK,

    I've never tried this, but I'm strongly leaning towards no. If I remember correctly when you are creating the container, it asks you the size and tells you the max amount it can be. That amount cannot be larger than the size of the remaining room left on the drive
  • martusK
    Hmm thought that was probably the case, but thanks for the quick reply. So the only answer is to encrypt the whole drive, using the Truecrypt volume option? - that option allows you to encrypt a whole drive, with existing data, from what I've read? Sorry being a bit ignorant about this but only started using it recently and just used the file container so far.
    Many thanks in advance.
  • If you just encrypt the whole drive, yes, you will be able to keep all of your data.
  • gaboca
    Hi Randy,

    I would like to ask some questions.
    I just encrypted my portable hard drive(the whole drive).
    Can I uninstall/reinstall my operating system(w-vista) on my laptop,because that will delete my Truecript installed on my computer?Do I need to do some back up?
    Or can I just uninstall and reinstall Truecrypt if I want?Where is my password/key stored?
    My other question is that when I did full disc encryption it did not let me to select just the drive(full capacity,but the drive letter was not shown),it only aloud me to encrypt partition1(my drive only has 1 partition)-also it was shown the full capacity of my HD-the drive letter and drive name was shown.
    If I decide to cancel/remove the encryption of my drive how shall I do it.I read the instruction manual of Truecrypt,but for me is a little confusing what is there.
    I can not decide which option shall I chose(A or B).
    A:If the volume is partition-hosted (applies also to USB flash drives)
    B:If the volume is device-hosted (i.e., there are no partitions on the device, and the device is entirely encrypted)
    As I encrypted my whole drive(it should be B),but when I started the encryption it only let e chose to encrypt partition1(which would be A).

    Thank you for your answer in advance.
  • Hey gaboca,

    You shouldn't have any problems moving that drive to any machine that has TrueCrypt installed on it. All it needs is TC so you can mount it and enter your passphrase.

    To remove encryption, just mount your drive as you normally would through TC and there should be an option in under Tools or something (I'm on my RC build of Win7 right now so I haven't taken the time to install TC yet).

    You're going to want to choose A. The reason is because TC manages external drives differently than drives with the actual OS running on it.

    Hope that helps!
  • gaboca
    Hi Randy,

    Thank you for your answer.
    So I can reinstall my OS or uninstall TC as information(for my password,etc) is stored on the encrypted drive.Shall I need to do some type of back up just in case before uninstalling TC or OS?
    I was planning actually to Install Win7 as well as a dual boot(other OS will be WinVista) the main reason for this to try to keep one OS only for personal/online banking and nothing else,other OS for rest of other activity.Actually I was planning to get Linux,but not sure if Online banking would be compatible with it.I guess I still can use Firefox as normal.

    I got an other question.I was planning to do a hidden volume within a normal encrypted one(460GB non OS drive encryption) and when it offered me the space for hidden part it was only 240GB.I have only about 120MB info saved and drive is NTFS formatted.Even if I would chose this option to hidden encrypt for about half of my drive, would it be any problem if I try to DEFRAGMENT my drive?
    How does it work?Let say I will chose protect my hidden data against recording(I guess when I mount my "normal"encrypted volume) but what if I mount a hidden volume one,would it automatically detect the other normal encrypted volume.Other words,if I chose DEFRAGMENT drive would it always defragment the whole HD(460GB) or just the one which is mounted.

    Sorry for so many questions.I like this TC,but they do not very explain certain part.

    Thanks for your answer again.
    Good luck with Win7.
  • If you're concerned about not being able to unecrypt after reformatting, I would just find another computer and install TC on it. Then plug your external encrypted drive into it and try to mount and decrypt it.

    It's not an issue to defrag an ecrypted drive. I used to do it on my old system regularly. It will only defrag what is mounted.
  • gaboca
    Hi Randy,

    Thank you very much your help.
  • Robert
    I have an encrypted IDE HD containing Windows XP OS.
    I decided to image the HD to another HD using Ghost 2003 which completed successfully.
    However, when i re-boot the system i get an error that my password is incorrect?
    Is there an issue cloning encrypted HD's using Ghost or Acronis/??/
  • Hey Robert,

    I'm actually not sure if TrueCrypt allows you to image an encrypted drive. I wasn't able to find anything in their documentation about this.

    I did find something on Expert's Exchange regarding using PGP to encrypt a drive and then image it and it's not possible because of they way PGP works.

    My best guess is that TrueCrypt does NOT allow this for security reasons.

    Here is what I read about PGP...

    "There is no way to PGP encrypt and then create an image that will function properly. The way PGP encrypts the whole disk doesn't allow it to be reproduced in an image. I say this from experience with about 30 people who worked on this and decided it was not a feasible solution. We follow same steps of imaging and then encrypting the drives. The only way to make it simpler is to script the post image install and encryption, which is what we do."
  • Saucer
    randyjensen, When your in your OS, for instance, Windows, Your drive isn't Unencrypted. Nothing is ever unencrypted if you did Whole Disk encryption, it just is unencrypted in memory when you are using it.
  • Hey Saucer,

    Thanks for making this distinction. I think I misstated this.
  • Jeff
    IMPORTANT: remember to append the .iso or your file will not work correctly.

    Do not understand what this means or how to do it!
  • Hey Jeff,

    All it means is that when you are saving your file, to make sure you name it MYFILE.iso (make sure to actually type .iso in the filename, not just MYFILE)

    I will say however, that if you are unfamiliar with adding file extensions to documents, you may want to think twice about encrypting your system. Just a thought.
  • Hey all, I was wondering if it is actually possible to create a bootable TrueCrypt-ed primary hard drive on a Macbook Pro? As in, the drive with Mac OS X installed on it? I know it's a simple matter for Windows, but I've been unable to find any information on doing it on a Mac. I can get to the point of actually selecting the drive, but there doesn't seem to be an option for encrypting a disk or partition with the OS itself installed. I'm using version 6.2. Am I missing something, or is this just not possible yet?
  • Hey Zachary,

    It's actually not possible right now on Linux or OSX. Hopefully soon, I haven't looked into it too much but there may be some technological issues regarding the file system or the bootloaders.
  • Brandon
    Can i burn the rescue disk to a DVD instead of a CD?
  • TheParadox2
    Yes, you can... i've done it before and without problems...

    Its a bit of a waste of space but I guess its not really a waste because it'd be the same even on a CD... you'd still 'waste' the disc... but you really should make the rescue disk... I've had to use it.
  • Hey Brandon,

    I can't say I've ever done it, but there is no technological reason I can think of why you couldn't.
  • cutie_pyie
    Randy,
    I have a couple questions regarding using TrueCrypt to either secure the HDD or as your other article mentions: to secure a thumb drive.

    The prgm states: "you will need to create a password. Depending on how paranoid you are, you should choose a passphrase close to 20 characters in length. I would also recommend using Steve Gibson’s Perfect Passwords Generator to make sure you create a completely unique phrase."

    My question(s) to you are: How the heck can you/me/ or anyone remember a 20 character passphrase?? And where do we store "THAT"?

    Would it be a good idea to use a program like "KeePass" to store the passphrases?

    But then how long of a passphrase do we use to protect the KeePass program itself?

    I think we need an article on keeping passphrases and how & where to keep THEM!!

    Await your reply most anxiously!

    Sincerely,
    Cindy
  • Hey Cindy,

    Great questions! My terrible answer? There isn't a perfect solution. Our brains aren't made to store long random strings of data, but they are quite good at memorizing patterns/shapes (eg. a = @).

    The problem with storing your passphrase in KeePass is that you need your passphrase to get into your computer to get to KeePass which is storing your password :) (Unless you put KeePass on a secondary unencrypted machine)

    I'll tell you how I do it, but I do want to mention something. If you just want to protect your laptop in case it gets stolen or lost, you should be fine with a smaller password. I would say between 8-12 characters. Just make sure you make it a good one (I'll post my method next). Longer passwords are necessary for storing super secret data.

    Here's why I say that. Thousands of laptops get stolen every day. If the thief opens yours up and sees that it's encrypted (even with a weak password), he's probably not going to waste any time on it because he can just go and steal another one. Think about a car thief who is going to steal a car. Will he steal the car with "the club" on the wheel or the one without the club? Even if the club isn't actually locked (eg. even if your laptop is encrypted with a weak password) he's probably going to go elsewhere. Sometimes the smallest deterrent can save you.

    Here's what I do. I go to Steve Gibson's password generator and start generating passwords. I copy several string into a text document and get to work. Start thinking of actual words that mean something to you. I'm drinking a Red Bull right now. So I might start piecing together a password like "r3D8u1L". Now that may be a bit short, but what about this: "r3D_8u1L_En3rGy". I've just turned "Red Bull Energy" into a fairly unique phrase. You could even turn "Give Me Wings" into something unique.

    Another trick is to use a word that's already printed somewhere and make it unique. For example I have an Alienware computer next to me. Alienware in and of itself is unique, if I do what I did above, it turns out to be a great passphrase! (I know people who have used their printer and model to create one as well).

    My point is, for your basic laptop security, this is WAY more than enough (honestly, I'm pretty sure this is more than what most government officials do). Any type of encryption is going to thwart your most basic laptop thief (which is most of them).

    So, short answer is, if you're not comfortable with completely random, long passwords, no problem :) Anything you do that would be considered 'extra' security is better than 95% of the world.

    Sorry for the long winded answer, but I hope it helps!
  • iMORT3rnAL
    Hi,

    Great article, TrueCrypt looks quite promising and I will definitely be using the software, but first I just have a few questions that I’d like to ask you;

    1. If I only have one operating system installed on my computer and I install TrueCrypt with the “Single-boot” option, how easy will it be to start using the “Multi-boot” option should I decide to add more operating systems?

    2. If I install any operating systems after I’ve installed TrueCrypt, will TrueCrypt’s bootloader be replaced by the one of the operating system that I’m installing?

    Thanks
  • Hey iMORT3rnAL,

    I've attempted to encrypt a dual booting laptop but was unsuccessful. I didn't think it was even possible until I found this article:

    http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/how_to_...

    "It is very important during this stage of the installation that you accurately identify if you are dual booting into multiple OS’s. Since TrueCrypt writes its own boot loader to the first sector of the drive, failure to answer this correctly will result in your boot loader being over written. Currently the only multi boot loaders that are support are the Windows MBL (this is default interface that automatically installs with Windows 2000, XP, or Vista) and the Linux alternative Grub.

    If you select Multi-boot TrueCrypt will move your boot loader from the master boot record to another sector on the hard drive, out of harm’s way. When you are ready to proceed, click Next."

    There's also an excellent thread on the topic here:

    http://forums.truecrypt.org/viewtopic.php?p=610...

    So it seems that it is possible, just a bit of extra work. Let me know if you get it up and running!
  • Wim
    Nice article,

    I encrypt my whole drive, but still have a question.

    When I make a mapping to the encrypted drive from another pc, I can still see alle the files with read/write access....is this normal?
  • Hey Wim,

    If you're logged into your encrypted computer, all the files are unecrypted for that session. As soon as you put in your Truecrypt Passphrase at the bootloader screen, the drive is unecrypted.
  • Wim
    Thanks Randy!

    as you can see, I'm an encryption-newbie :-)
  • You're very welcome!

    Everyone was a n00B at one point right ;)
  • joe
    Very nice Article!
    "This will also install the TrueCrypt boot loader on the boot sector of your hard drive. This is a major reason why this encryption is so great. There is virtually no way to boot into the Windows file system without having the decryption key."
    What do you mean by that(Virtually)?

    Can the files only be read/accessed if the Boot-Sector is decrypted?
  • Thanks Joe! Yes. If someone were to pull that drive and stick it into another computer they wouldn't be able to read it. Or even if they had the resources to look at the bits on the drive, they would all be completely random.

    This boot loader is incredibly important to the security of the drive after it's encrypted. It's also the reason that TrueCrypt makes absolutely certain that you've created a rescue disk. With this disk, you can unencrypt the drive without having to hit the boot loader.

    I actually just updated my BIOS the other day and Windows kept giving me a BSOD, meaning I never got to the boot sector of the drive. I had to use my rescue disk to unencrypt the drive, and then use a Linux live cd to read and backup the contents of the drive.

    Hope this helps!
  • charles
    very impressive tutorial thanks. Am going to try to encrypt my new samsung netbook. Hopefully it won't majorly slow boot times etc.
  • charles
    very impressive tutorial thanks. Am going to try to encrypt my new samsung netbook. Hopefully it won't majorly slow boot times etc.
  • Hey Charles,

    Glad it worked for you. The guys that did TrueCrypt spent a lot of time making sure the encryption won't slow down the computer. In fact, there was a study that showed a Windows computer actually running faster after the encryption because of the database that they used.
  • Randy,

    its me again daniel from Brazil =]

    just to say that i have translated this tutorial to portuguese and put into my blog!!

    take a look :
    http://torradeira.net/criptogrando-seu-hd-intei...

    i add a link to this tutorial a thankz for u

    cya!!
  • Excellent! Thanks for taking the time to do that and for the linkback!
  • amazing!!! Encryption is on! 2.439% 8 hours to finish

    DOD or NSA would have trouble getting in (unless of course there was water boarding involved).

    wath water boarding means??
    greetingz from Brazil
  • Hey Daniel, glad you got it working!

    You can read about waterboarding here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding. It's basically a torture technique that is incredibly effective at getting information from people (and also, incredibly inhumane).

    I guess it was a bad joke that didn't translate well to my overseas readers...sorry :(
  • Alex
    Hi

    Sorry for my bad english. I want to now if you can encrypt mac os x 10.5 leopard like windows that you have don whith TruCrypt.
  • Hey Alex,

    Yes. With the new TrueCrypt 5.1, you can encrypt volumes on 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard. I'll admit I've never done it personally, but I've heard good things from friends. Good luck!

    Here's the download link http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
  • Alex
    Thansk for youre help, i have download it and instald it but i dont now how to juse it, do you now vere i can get instruktiones for incrypying my mac
  • The UI should be very similar to the Windows UI. I would see if you can use my tutorial to work for the Mac. I'm sure there will be some differences, but overall TrueCrypt should function very similarly.
  • Alex
    Sorry for beaing a pain but when i yuse truecrypt i can only find create volume and there is only tow choses hiden and create a standard truecrypt volume. when you prosed it forses you yo format the entaier disk. I cant find enywhere encrypt like on ne 5 in youre instruktions. thans agin for everything
  • No problem at all :) Here's how you do it:

    1) Click 'Create Volume'
    2) Click 'Create a Standard TrueCrypt Volume'
    3) Click 'Select Drive' and choose your hard disk ( mine is showing as /dev/rdisk0 )
    4) Click 'Next' and you will get a warning. Click 'Yes'

    Let me know if that gets you going!
  • maxmetallica
    Clear,simple and just in a snap this tutorial taught me to do an drive encryption.Thanks dude!!..I have a 8gb Transcend pendrive .In that,they gave transcend elite software which contains a pack of small softwares and "data encryption" was one of them.But it was very horrible.After encrypting ,accessing those files will take lots of time(like decrypting and to normal file).One day i found True crypt on download.com.I thought of giving it a try.After installing ,the entire gui of the true crypt software was like MSpaint...lol.Encryption was damn simple and yet accesing those files are also resonably fast...just my exp ...thanks dude!
  • Hey maxmetallica,

    You are very welcome! It sounds like you may want to check out my tutorial about encrypting thumb drives with TrueCrypt as well ( http://www.randyjensenonline.com/blog/?p=325 ).

    You're dead on. The encryption should actually speed up Windows read/write times a bit. The GUI takes a second to get used to, but once you do, it's very intuitive and simple to use.
  • Thank you very much for your whole disc encryption tutorial. I think I am going to encrypt all the computers in our family, privacy is our right, not a crime :-)

    And go on doing your great job, from now on your posts will appear in my RSS reader :-)
  • Hey Histakel,

    Glad you found it helpful! Privacy is most certainly a right!

    Hopefully I'll have some time in the future to show you how to create hidden partitions to be even more secure:-)
  • Jim
    Hi Randy,
    Great post. Just two questions... where do you choose to keep your rescue disk? Obviously, for security reasons, you shouldn't keep it in the same location as the drive, right? Secondly, do you keep the rescue disk ISO on your encrypted drive after burning the rescue disk? I'm guessing that's okay, since it is encrypted also. Once again, thanks for the great post!
  • Thanks Jim!

    The rescue disk itself isn't really that valuable to anyone but me. You still need my passphrase to get into my system even with the disk. So it doesn't matter per se if the disk is in the same place as the computer .

    I do, however, store mine in several places. I have one cd at home and work as well as the .iso stored in the cloud so I can access it from anywhere if need be. This gives you a backup at home, an offsite backup and a third party offsite backup.

    I actually do not keep my rescue disk on my encrypted computer anywhere. There's nothing wrong with doing this (if you want to use it as one backup method), but the point of the disk is to save the system if the encrypted boot sector gets corrupt, or there is a malware issue. So if you can't boot the system, you're S.O.L.

    'But what if you lose the original disk?' You can always re-run the rescue disk iso from truecrypt if you need to. You should also have several backups like I stated above.

    Hope this helps!
  • Bob
    This is the best tutorial I have seen! Thank you. Two questions:

    1) Roughly how long will it take to encrypt a 100GB directory?
    2) How long does it take to open a file once the directory holding the file is encrypted (assuming a 100GB directory)? In other words, is day-to-day use really slowed down on an encrypted directory or partition?
  • Hey Bob, glad you enjoyed the tutorial!

    1) I can't give you an exact, but I would expect around an hour
    2) The amazing thing about TrueCrypt is the database that is used on the backend actually SPEEDS up read/write times! The TrueCrypt guys are unbelievably good at what they do:)

    Hope this helps!
  • Well done! I'll be waiting for the back up strategy!
  • Hey Panther!

    Thanks for reminding me that I need to write a new post on backing up. I completely forgot :S Glad you enjoyed this tutorial!
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