Create virtual encrypted disks to secure data
August 10th, 2006
TrueCrypt is an open source application that allows you to create encrypted virtual drives on your computer. That way you can secure files on your computer by putting them in an encrypted space that will only be accessible by mounting the virtual drive which is password protected.
The TrueCrypt file can be emailed, backed up and FTP’ed and remain secure because of the strong encryption. It can also be run from a USB flash drive. The virtual disks can be mounted on any operating system.
Once a volume is mounted, files that are written to the virtual disk are encrypted on the fly. Performance is excellent and you hardly notice anything - except if you choose some ridiculous encryption algorithm.
You can create almost any size virtual drive and chose from most popular file systems, e.g. FAT32 and NTFS.
Make sure to save your password: There is no way to recover a lost password!
- Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
- Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a device.
- Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
It’s very simple:
- Download and install TrueCrypt: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
- Start the application
- Click on Create Volume
- Select a location and file name for the virtual drive. The virtual drive is saved as one big encrypted file (or a whole disk)
- Choose an encryption algorithm
- Choose the virtual drive size
- Choose a password
- Select the file that you just created and choose a drive letter on which to mount it
- Click on Mount and enter password
The drive is available to you and anyone else connected to the computer for as long as it is mounted. See the Beginner’s Tutorial for more information.