Comments on: Using Truecrypt to Encrypt Your Entire Hard Drive

By: Nigel R

Nigel R — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:54:30 +0000

It all sounds good… now, I have a Lenovo with single XP OS on it. But there is a hidden partition that can be loaded if needed to do a Lenovo-process rescue. Not sure about further details. Obviously I'm concerned that this arrangement is not compatible with TC and I'll only find out too late!

Any advice appreciated.

By: joel_juice

joel_juice — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:23:36 +0000

Can I use this to encrypt the hard-drive but still allow it to boot and load applications unattended?

By: jamietroy

jamietroy — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:53:25 +0000

thanks for a great tutorial. One question though, If i encrypt my drive and my OS dies or computer hardware is dead etc, so that i have to remove the drive and use a USB caddy to connect to another machine, Is it possible then to recover the data?
I am guessing second machine would need Trucrypt and my passphrase.

thanks in advance

By: randyjensen

randyjensen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:58:23 +0000

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

By: Lem21

Lem21 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:35:50 +0000

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!

By: randyjensen

randyjensen — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:22:13 +0000

If you just encrypt the whole drive, yes, you will be able to keep all of your data.

By: martusK

martusK — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:16:56 +0000

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.

By: randyjensen

randyjensen — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:06:30 +0000

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

By: martusK

martusK — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:51:07 +0000

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

By: gaboca

gaboca — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:33:49 +0000

Hi Randy,

Thank you very much your help.