How To Encrypt System Disk Partition Using TrueCrypt

Every computer must have the secondary memory. The other name of secondary memory is the hard disk drive. Its function is to permanently keep the important data such as file system data. The health of file system data is very important for the operating system to run smoothly inside the computer.

If these data getting corrupted, the computer’s users may encounter the problems on their operating system. But, sometimes these problems happen because of the users attitude who use the computer.

Some computer’s owners will try to protect or maintain their operating system with various maintenance and security tools such as check disk program and antivirus program. But, there are one radical step that the owners can do to protect their operating system. It is encryption technique.

Again, you can use the TrueCrypt program to protect your operating system from the malicious users who have an intention to make the illegal access into it. You can protect it by encrypt your system disk partition.

In this article, I will show you how to encrypt the system disk partition inside your computer.



What You Need

1. Blank CD/DVD RW. This CD/DVD RW will be used to burn the TrueCrypt Rescue Disk image file inside it. The file come in form of .iso file.

Before The Procedures

1. Download the TrueCrypt program from here.
   
   
   
2. You must install the TrueCrypt program into the computer which you want to encrypt its system disk partition.

The Procedures

1. Right click your mouse on the TrueCrypt icon and click Open to launch the TrueCrypt program installed in your computer
   
   
   
   
   
2. When you see the program interface below, click button
   
   
   
   
   
3. The TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard box will appear on your computer screen. See below.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Based on above, click the radio button Encrypt the system partition or entire system drive ––> click Next.
   
    
5. Now, you can choose the type of system encryption you like. If you only want to encrypt your system disk partition, you can click the radio button Normal –-> click Next.
   
    
   
   
   
6. At this stage, you can decide the disk partition you want to encrypt. In this procedures, I choose to encrypt the whole drive because my computer hard disk only has single partition. 
   
   
   
   To encrypt the whole disk drive, you must click the radio button Encrypt the whole drive –-> click Next
   
   
   
7. Then, the TrueCrypt program will asked you to encrypt the Host Protected Area (HPA) reside in your hard disk drive.
   
   
   
   Please read the warning statement provided before you decide to encrypt the Host Protected Area (HPA) of your hard disk. If you are not sure, just click the radio button No –-> click Next
   
   
   
8. At this stage, you have to choose the number of operating system installed in your computer. If only single operating system installed, then you can click radio button Single-boot –-> click Next.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Choose AES as the encryption options –-> click Next
   
   
   
   
   
10. Create the strong access password –-> click Next. You will use this password to access the encrypted system disk partition.
    
    
    
    
    
11. Now, move your mouse cursor as randomly as possible under the area named Current pool content (partial). The longer time you move, the better cryptographic strength of encryption keys will be produced –-> click Next
    
    
    
    
    
12. Now, you can see the partial of encryption keys you generated at the previous step (step 11). Click Next.
    
    
    
    
    
13. At this step, you will create the TrueCrypt Rescue Disk image file (.iso file). As the default, the ISO image file will be saved in My Documents folder. Just click Next to start creating the image file (.iso file).
    
    
    
    
    
14. When you see the alert box below, insert the blank CD/DVD RW into CD/DVD drive bay –-> click OK.
    
     
    
    
    
15. Tick the check box Verify disc after burning –-> click the button Burn when you see the Windows Disc Image Burner’s box like below –-> please wait while the burning process running 
    
    
    
    
    
16. Click the button Close when the burning process complete. 
    
     
    
    Note:
    If you use the notebook to burn the ISO image, please close the CD/DVD drive bay before you click the button Close.
    
    
    
17. After you click the button Close, you will see TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard box again –-> click Next to verify the TrueCrypt Rescue Disk.iso is correctly burned.
    
    
    
    
    
18. Remove the CD/DVD RW from the CD\DVD drive bay –-> click Next.
    
    
    
    
    
19. Now, you will be asked to choose the wipe mode. This process is to avoid your adversary to recover the data you intend encrypt. For the fastest wiping process, you can choose None (fastest) from the select box –-> click Next. See below.
    
    
    
    
    
20. Now, this is the time to apply the encryption technique into your system disk partition. Refer to the wizard box below, click the button Test.
    
     
    
    
21. Now, the important notes like below will appears on your screen. I personally recommend you to print or copy its contents into the notepad. After you finish print or copy the contents, click button OK.
    
    
    
    
    
22. When the confirm box below appears, click button Yes –-> your computer will be restarted.
    
    
    
    Note:
    During the boot process, the TrueCrypt Boot Loader screen will appears. Insert the access password you created at step 10 and press Enter. Then the computer will boot and loading into Windows as usual.
    
    
    
    
    
23. After the Windows OS finish loading, the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard box will appears like below. Click the button Encrypt
    
    
    
    
    
24. Again, the TrueCrypt notes will appears on your screen. You are recommended to copy its contents into notepad. Then, click the button OK.
    
    
    
    
    
25. The system disk partition’s encryption process will start –-> please wait.
    
    

After The Procedures

The system disk partition’s encryption process need a long time to accomplish. If you think you want to postpone the process and continue it anytime, you can click the button Defer.



Click button Yes when the confirm box like below appears.



Then you can shutdown your computer. When the next time your start the computer and log onto Windows environment, the confirm box like below appears on your screen.



Click Yes if you want to resume the system disk partition’s encryption process. Otherwise you can click No.

Encrypt The Physical Disk Storage Using TrueCrypt

Besides its ability create the virtual storage disk with encryption characteristic, you also can use TrueCrypt to encrypt the real disk storage available both inside and outside of your computer. The encryption of the real disk storage can be made through its logical partition. For the example, if you have a disk storage or hard disk with multiple partition, you can decide which partition you want to encrypt. This example is for the real disk storage inside the computer. For the disk storage outside the computer, it can be classified into the thumb drive and the external hard disk drive. In other means, you also can encrypt your USB thumb drive or external hard disk using TrueCrypt if you want to do that. 

From my observation, the TrueCrypt software will assume your USB thumb drive or external hard disk as the disk partition and this is logically true when you attach one of them to the computer USB port, you will notice the disk icon inside My Computer appear after a couple of seconds.   

 

TODAY I WOULD LIKE TO SHOW YOU, HOW TO ENCRYPT THE REAL DISK STORAGE USING TRUECRYPT SOFTWARE. I WILL USE THE USB THUMB DRIVE AS REPRESENTATION TO THE REAL DISK STORAGE. IT IS BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE USUALLY USE THE THUMB DRIVE TO KEEP THEIR DOCUMENTS INCLUDING THE CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS.   



Before The Procedures

1. Download TrueCrypt software from its manufacturer website.
   
   
2. Install the freeware into your computer system.
   
   
   
   
   
3. You need to get ready with your USB thumb drive.

The Procedures

1. Attach the USB thumb drive into your computer USB port and wait for a second.
   
   
2. Launch TrueCrypt by double click its icon on the computer desktop –-> the program interface like below will be presented to you.
   
   
   
   
3. Based on above, click the button Create Volume –-> the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard appears like below
   
   
   
   
4. Based on above, click the radio button Encrypt a non-system partition/drive –-> click Next
   
   Note:
   The USB thumb drive, the external disk and the secondary partition of the computer hard disk is assumed as the non-system partition because it do not store the folder that is important for operating system, eg: Windows and System32 folder.   
   
   
5. At this step, choose the type of volume that you want to assign for your USB thumb drive. For the novice users, click radio button Standard TrueCrypt volume –-> click Next
   
   
   
   
6. At this step you will select the device you want to encrypt. Click button Select Device
   
   
   
   
7. You will be redirected to the selection wizard like below. Choose your USB thumb drive as you want to encrypt it –-> click OK 
   
    
   
   Click Next
   
   
   
   
8. At this step, you will start to encrypt the disk partition (the USB thumb drive) you selected in the previous step (step 6).
   
   
   
   You either can choose to encrypt the disk partition and format it or encrypt the disk partition in place –-> click Next
   
   Note: 
   If the disk partition which you want to encrypt contain data, you can choose to encrypt it in place. If it contain no data, you can encrypt and format it. This is the faster way to apply encryption technique on the disk partition.
   
   
9. Choose the encryption algorithm that you prefer, eg: AES –-> click Next
   
   
   
   
10. Please verify the size of the disk partition (the USB thumb drive) you want to encrypt is correct –-> click Next 
    
    
    
    
11. Now, you are going to create the access password. This password will be used when you want to access your encrypted USB thumb drive. The strong access password is suggested to have alphanumeric (alphabet + number) characters with the symbol characters (eg: #@$%& etc.). It also good to has the long password.
    
    
    
    Note:
    If you want your encrypted USB thumb drive become harder to access by the unauthorized users, you can use the password together with the keyfile.
    
    To generate and use the keyfile, you can refer to my previous article. Please refer to the step 10, step 11 and step 12 under section The Procedures.
    
    Caution!!!:
    Please be caution that you should not modify the contents of the keyfile after you create it. It is because you will not be able to access the encrypted disk partition with the modified keyfile.
    
    
12. At this step, you will be prompted to format your encrypted USB thumb drive. Choose the appropriate file system for the disk –> click button Format –> please wait. 
    
    
    
    Read the warning appears in the warning box like below –-> click Yes to proceed the format process.
    
    
    
    Please wait until the TrueCrypt finish format your encrypted USB thumb drive. 
    
    
    
    Please read and take note the message below. This message appears when the formatting process done 100% –-> click OK after you read and understand its contents
    
    
    
    Click OK
    
    
    
    
13. Click Exit to finish the task.
    
    

Note:
Now, you have the encrypted USB thumb drive. You can transfer all your confidential documents into it and the document will be encrypted automatically. The encrypted disk partition will look like below:

 

How To Use

In this section we will learn how you can transfer your confidential documents into the encrypted USB thumb drive.

1. Double click the TrueCrypt icon to launch the freeware –-> you will be presented with the interface like below
   
   
   
   
2. Based on above, click Select Device… –-> when you see the selection wizard like below, click to partition that represent your encrypted USB thumb drive –-> click OK 
   
   
   
   
3. Now, you will see the encrypted disk partition is saved in the drop down menu like below –-> click Mount 
   
   
   
   
4. Insert the password –-> click the check box Use keyfiles –-> click the button Keyfiles…
   
   
   
   Then, you will see the interface like below. Click the button Add Files…
   
   
   
   Now, click to choose the keyfile that you had created before –-> click the button Open –-> click OK –-> click OK.
   
   
   
   
5. Now, the encrypted disk partition had been mounted. See below 
   
   
   
   If you see inside My Computer, you will see the icon of local disk with the drive letter T:. This local disk is representing the encrypted USB thumb drive.
   
   
   
   
6. Now, you can move the confidential documents into the local disk (T:). The documents will be encrypted, once you paste it into the USB thumb drive.

 

IMPORTANT NOTE

The USB thumb drive which you have encrypted will be look like below when you try to open it in a normal way.



Just after you attach the encrypted USB thumb drive into the computer USB port, the wizard box that prompt you to format the drive will pop-up automatically. PLEASE DON’T CLICK BUTTON FORMAT DISK IF YOU DON’T WANT YOUR CONFIDENTIAL DATA INSIDE THE DRIVE LOST.

IF YOU WANT TO ACCESS YOUR ENCRYPTED USB THUMB DRIVE, PLEASE USE THE STEPS THAT I SHOW YOU IN HOW TO USE SECTION.