Using Truecrypt On A Memory Stick

[Dustoff]

I am off to Hawaii in a few days and will be picking up a new laptop which has already arrived. Instead of carrying this old laptop along, I want to put most of my progs and files on a memory stick and encrypt it in case of loss.

I have been told to install TrueCrypt on the stick outside of the encrypted volume which sounds reasonable but I have so far found no way to do that. When I encrypt my 8B stick with a 5GB volume, the device does not show up at all when plugged in until I mount the drive.

This is no help at all. If I am plugging the stick into a new laptop without TrueCrypt, how do I go about mounting the drive from the stick itself?

Thoughts?

Thanks

[Tywais]

Truecrypt Travel Mode

and Encrypt your flash drive

[wxpwzrd]

Also

www.safehousesoftware.com

They have pay versions and a free version. And it easily will run from a stick.

[stumonster]

an 8 gig drive with a 5gig encrypted container means you have approx 3 gig of space left on the drive

copy the truecrypt installer to the drive and run it and choose traveler mode , and you will install the program on your stick.

the truecrypt site will have a detailed procedure for you to follow on their website

[OriginalPoster]

Also

www.safehousesoftware.com

They have pay versions and a free version. And it easily will run from a stick.

Why do you recommend that instead of TrueCrypt?

[wxpwzrd]

Also

www.safehousesoftware.com

They have pay versions and a free version. And it easily will run from a stick.

Why do you recommend that instead of TrueCrypt?

full disclosure? Because the Director of Business Development is a long time friend of mine. He assures me this is the stuff and at my level in IT, he will not recommend junk to me. I have not had a reason to test it as my needs do not require it but I have a standing license to the pro version.

On another note, I am not a big fan of open source software and always feel that a product is better when it has financial backing of a commercial product. To me too much open source software is poorly designed and coded due to the loose nature of the team.

[OriginalPoster]

Also

www.safehousesoftware.com

They have pay versions and a free version. And it easily will run from a stick.

Why do you recommend that instead of TrueCrypt?

full disclosure? Because the Director of Business Development is a long time friend of mine. He assures me this is the stuff and at my level in IT, he will not recommend junk to me. I have not had a reason to test it as my needs do not require it but I have a standing license to the pro version.

On another note, I am not a big fan of open source software and always feel that a product is better when it has financial backing of a commercial product. To me too much open source software is poorly designed and coded due to the loose nature of the team.

It might be a good program but TrueCrypt seems pretty solid to me.

Open source vs commercial products can go either way in terms of support. Commercial software companies have been known to orphan products and discontinue support if they aren't making money off it (or to go out of business completely). The TrueCrypt project isn't about to disappear though, there is no shortchange of anti-capitalist programmers out there who will donate there time just for the prividelge of having thier name mentioned in the "credits" section of the program's documentation.

Edited June 3, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[vagabond48]

The only possible downside of TrueCrypt is that you must have administrative rights on the PC you are connecting the memory stick to.

I went to India recently and I used the free portable app Toucan to encrypt/decrypt my sensitive files and uploaded them to my email account. I simplified the file names and removed the primary suffix and Toucan's suffix so myfile.ods.cpt became mf.

[OriginalPoster]

The only possible downside of TrueCrypt is that you must have administrative rights on the PC you are connecting the memory stick to.

I went to India recently and I used the free portable app Toucan to encrypt/decrypt my sensitive files and uploaded them to my email account. I simplified the file names and removed the primary suffix and Toucan's suffix so myfile.ods.cpt became mf.

That's a good point about needed administrator privileges. I suppose that if all your transporting is data files that you could just put them in a password protected zip file with 256 bit AES encryption instead of putting it in a TrueCrypt container. Probably noone's going to break that unless they manage to guess your password.

[Dustoff]

~

Thanks so much for all your responses. Just to update:

I am using a Kingmax 8 GB USB Flash Drive. One partition, have tried formatting with both NTFS and Fat32.

I have encrypted other flash drives but encrypted the entire parition and it works very well indeed. I have also encrypted an entire non-system external hard drive partition and it works very well indeed.

Setting up a container? No luck.

I just downloaded the newest version of TrueCrypt and installed it on the flash drive;

I moved to another computer and opened TC from the flash drive;

I chose create volume, standard volume, gave it a name, chose 4000 MB for a size, and while it went smoothly, it took 45 minutes to create the volume in Fat32 format;

The file is right there on Drive E:/, 4 GB in size, totally visable in Win Explorer. TrueCrypt however does not show drive E at all nor can it find any encrypted volume to mount or dismount. I tried dropping a file into the MySaves "volume" but of course cannot drop a file into a normal file.

I am happy that it works so well for the rest of you but I am just going to encrypt the entire flash drive partition and carry Truecrypt on a CD. Thanks again for all your responses...

[OriginalPoster]

~

Thanks so much for all your responses. Just to update:

I am using a Kingmax 8 GB USB Flash Drive. One partition, have tried formatting with both NTFS and Fat32.

I have encrypted other flash drives but encrypted the entire parition and it works very well indeed. I have also encrypted an entire non-system external hard drive partition and it works very well indeed.

Setting up a container? No luck.

I just downloaded the newest version of TrueCrypt and installed it on the flash drive;

I moved to another computer and opened TC from the flash drive;

I chose create volume, standard volume, gave it a name, chose 4000 MB for a size, and while it went smoothly, it took 45 minutes to create the volume in Fat32 format;

The file is right there on Drive E:/, 4 GB in size, totally visable in Win Explorer. TrueCrypt however does not show drive E at all nor can it find any encrypted volume to mount or dismount. I tried dropping a file into the MySaves "volume" but of course cannot drop a file into a normal file.

I am happy that it works so well for the rest of you but I am just going to encrypt the entire flash drive partition and carry Truecrypt on a CD. Thanks again for all your responses...

It sounds like you've successfully created an encrypted truecypt container on drive E. That's the 4GB file you mention. To mount it, relaunch TrueCrypt and instead of clicking the button that says "Select Device" click the one that says "Select File" and then browse for the 4GB file and select the 4GB file. Then you'll be prompted for your password, enter it, and then a new drive letter should appear on your system.

Edited June 4, 2009 by OriginalPoster

[Dustoff]

It sounds like you've successfully created an encrypted truecypt container on drive E. That's the 4GB file you mention. To mount it, relaunch TrueCrypt and instead of clicking the button that says "Select Device" click the one that says "Select File" and then browse for the 4GB file and select the 4GB file. Then you'll be prompted for your password, enter it, and then a new drive letter should appear on your system.

Aarrgghh.. Brilliant OriginalPoster, brilliant!

Deep inside I KNEW it had to be some simple step that I was missing..

I really don't mind feeling stupid as long as I learn something in the process..

Thank you!

da Dustoff

[Beardog]

Hey Have an awesome time in Hawaii!

I am going to the U.S in 3 days Cali. is the closest west I am going. Wish I was flying to Maui!!!!!!