Encrypting drives

[poltergeisty]

I was reading this crap, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...x#BKMK_require

And saw that it said I needed two partitions? I'm using Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

Do you need a Windows password to use Bitlocker? I would like to encrypt both the SSD main drive and the HDD secondary drive.


I have a second HDD that is used for the temp directory so I don't think I can Truecrypot both drives and unlock both at the same time for Windows to use at start up.

 

[CapStar362]

got this:

We are sorry. The page you requested cannot be found.

When i clicked that link.


i did find this:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/...bitlocker-drive-encryption-startup-key-or-pin



says nothing about needing a password within windows, as it prevents windows from even starting up....without a startup password

 

[poltergeisty]

That makes more sense than what I read. What I read stated that I needed partition space. I need to encrypt both the main SSD and HDD that has the downloads folder and temp file on it.

Edit - If I have both drives encrypted will I have to enter two pins? The computer I'm doing this on doesn't have a TPM so I have to use a USB thumb drive or pin. USB thumb drive is out of the question since I don't want no one access to it. I need both drives to be encrypted and fully accessible on system start. The second HDD contains the temp directory so I need to do it like this.

I will test this in VMware and see what happens I guess.

 

[poltergeisty]

Found this. How to Enable BitLocker Without a TPM Chip in Windows 7 & Windows 8

So now I just need a way to encrypt the second HDD because the option isn't there. It is in VMware using two drives. See here. http://imgur.com/8aAoYOY

Here's my host with it not showing the second drive. http://imgur.com/UmFQOUB

 

[CapStar362]

ill have to research through MSDN Technet, but i can probably find u a answer..... gimme some time

 

[poltergeisty]

I might just use Truecrypt. I mved the temp files back onto the main SSD. I just wanted some protection and never really trusted a M$ encryption. But I need both drives encrypted. I'm not sure how I can do this with two drives. I would like to use one password for both drives. But I don't think that will work.

 

[CapStar362]

i have never used True myself, but i can D/L it real quick and see how to encrypt dual drives

 

[poltergeisty]

I use Truecrypt all the time, but just containers. Right now I have Firefox portable in a Truecrypt container. I just never deployed full disk encryption and on two drives no less. I will test this in VMware since I have two drives connected in Win 7 in VM.

 

[poltergeisty]

Well, I successfully encrypted the main OS drive in VMware, but when I wanted to encrypt the second attached drive it said there were files in use and then another pop up came up and said if I wanted to force dismount so I did and it couldn't. Very disconcerting. I'm not sure how this will play out on my second HDD on the main computer. I may have to format the HDD and encrypt then move the files back.

I inquired on the truecrypt forums about cloning an encrypted drive so we shall see what their response is.

Testing continues...

 

[poltergeisty]

I got the laptop encrypted and it took around an hour and and a half. Now the desktop will take at my estimation 6 to 7 hours. I found a thread on the Truecrypt forums about encrypting two attached hard drives by using the favorites setting and using the same password.

 

[poltergeisty]

Got both drive's encrypted on the desktop with truecrypt. I had to use save favorite drive to system drives and the same password for the second drive to auto mount once you first log into Windows. Well, it's a boot manager in the partition that comes up before you can log into Windows. I wanted to use a key file in addition to a password because I do have a Truecrypt brute force cracker program, but with a Truecrypt encrypted drive using a keyfile you're SOL to crack it. . I'm not too worried about brute forcing my encrypted drives since I'm using a password that is over 20 digits long. :lol:

 

[questnz]

You CAN'T crack Truecrypt, (maybe NSA can with their hardware power can) with pre boot authentication there is NO record of anything in Windows. You would need original key file or the pass phrase. The drive is scrambled on hardware level, it is different to Password Cracking. 20 digit long pass phrase with mix characters lower and upper case would take years to crack on home computer, if power get cut you need to start again. Old article but it will give you some idea about the task one would face http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/
Now for fun try this http://lastbit.com/pswcalc.asp not necessary correct but fun

 

[poltergeisty]

If a complex passphrase has been used – a random mixture of upper and lower case letters with numbers and special ASCII characters throw in – and the bit length is long, formidable computing power and time would be required to chance upon the correct passphrase.

That's the thing. Like I said I do have a Truecrypt password cracker, but it only brute forces the password and if a keyfile is used forgetaboutit. I have entered some known info. into the cracker to crack my own Truecrypt container and it did crack it, but I gave it known info.

The only agency I know of that can crack the password of my hard drives is the NSA with their very highly sophisticated server farm that is under ground at Fort Mead Maryland.

I tried my current Truecrypt password in that calculator and it was too many digits. it only goes to 20. LOL!

 

[poltergeisty]

Tip of the day. Don't ever clone to a USB drive and then encrypt it. I have about 350 GB of data on one of the partitions on the external HDD and encrypting the data is taking over 30 freaking hours! I should have formatted the partition, encrypted and wrote the data back.

I still have about 7 HDD to go. Shesh!