Need advice on Encrypting whole Hard Disk

[dan99t]

Hi,

I need to send private data overseas on a hard disk.

It is 500 GB HDD with Win-7 Ultimate 64 bit.

It has 5 Partitions including system partition.

What is the best & Easiest way of Encrypting the entire hard disk ?

I don't mind spending to Buy any kind of software.

I did look at " Folder Lock " software which allows you to make individual lockers which are encrypted but I don't know how good that encryption is & whether the system partition can encrypted. It doesn't say what algorithm is used. Plus point is that it is fairly easy to use.

Does the type of algorithm make any difference ?

Thanks

 

[Bubbaleone]

TrueCrypt

 

[smakme7757]

Truecrypt as suggested above will work fine.

AES is a secure and a fast cipher. Even faster on processors that support the AES instruction set.

 

[ringtail]

Legitimate $299 app breaks popular encryption systems
By Lincoln Spector Conventional wisdom has been that files protected with good encryption can't be cracked.
But a new, wizard-driven app can unlock BitLocker-, PGP-, and TrueCrypt-encrypted files, folders, and drives — no matter how strong a password you're using.
Last month, Elcomsoft released the Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor (http://www.elcomsoft.com/efdd.html), a program that opens encrypted files without trying to guess your password or attack it with brute force. In fact, the actual password is effectively irrelevant. A long, random string such as bS2f#[voIT+?@=Uq3a,.B provides no better protection against EFDD than would "password" or "12345."

Products such as EFDD serve a legal, legitimate purpose. If a user has forgotten his password, these forensic programs can restore access to otherwise lost data. If an employee purposely or accidentally locks a company out of its critical business files, password crackers are a perfectly legitimate recovery tool.

Never hibernate Windows when encrypted files are open. Ensure you've closed any encrypted files before using hibernation — or simply never use it; sleep mode doesn't use much more power than does hibernation.

 

[Bubbaleone]

From the bold font you've used to sensationalize your post, to the erroneous claims made by "Lincoln Spector" that you (apparently) are quoting, it appears neither of you have a clue about the very specialized field of computer forensic analysis, nor did either of you actually bother to read ElcomSoft's product description in the link you provide. As just one example of the very misleading statements in your post, you make this bolded statement: " In fact, the actual password is effectively irrelevant."; when in fact, ElcomSoft has this to say:

Three Ways to Acquire Encryption Keys

Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor needs the original encryption keys in order to access protected information stored in crypto containers. The encryption keys can be derived from hibernation files or memory dump files acquired while the encrypted volume was mounted. There are three ways available to acquire the original encryption keys:

• By analyzing the hibernation file (if the PC being analyzed is turned off);

• By analyzing a memory dump file *

• By performing a FireWire attack ** (PC being analyzed must be running with encrypted volumes mounted).

* A memory dump of a running PC can be acquired with one of the readily available forensic tools such as MoonSols Windows Memory Toolkit
** A free tool launched on investigator’s PC is required to perform the FireWire attack (e.g. Inception)

Forensic analysts highly trained in decryption methodologies, analysis techniques and extremely specialized software tools, have been decrypting encrypted data for many years and this is just a new tool to add to their arsenal.

Your post makes every effort to suggest that now all "Joe Blow" needs to do is plunk down his $299.00 and he'll instantly have full access to any encrypted disk. The OP wants to safely send a HDD containing the OS and private data overseas, and asked for suggestions of effective encryption software that's "fairly easy to use". TrueCrypt will keep his encrypted data safe from nearly anyone, except a really good computer forensic analyst who's got a lot of motivation and time on his hands.


.

 

[masteryoda34]

Legitimate $299 app breaks popular encryption systems
By Lincoln Spector Conventional wisdom has been that files protected with good encryption can't be cracked.
But a new, wizard-driven app can unlock BitLocker-, PGP-, and TrueCrypt-encrypted files, folders, and drives — no matter how strong a password you're using.
Last month, Elcomsoft released the Elcomsoft Forensic Disk Decryptor (http://www.elcomsoft.com/efdd.html), a program that opens encrypted files without trying to guess your password or attack it with brute force. In fact, the actual password is effectively irrelevant. A long, random string such as bS2f#[voIT+?@=Uq3a,.B provides no better protection against EFDD than would "password" or "12345."

Products such as EFDD serve a legal, legitimate purpose. If a user has forgotten his password, these forensic programs can restore access to otherwise lost data. If an employee purposely or accidentally locks a company out of its critical business files, password crackers are a perfectly legitimate recovery tool.

Never hibernate Windows when encrypted files are open. Ensure you've closed any encrypted files before using hibernation — or simply never use it; sleep mode doesn't use much more power than does hibernation.

This is pure garbage. Blatantly untrue claims. :thumbsdown:


OP: TrueCrypt is what you are looking for.

 

[seepy83]

Never hibernate Windows when encrypted files are open. Ensure you've closed any encrypted files before using hibernation — or simply never use it; sleep mode doesn't use much more power than does hibernation.

What are they using as the basis for these claims? Because I will tell you that this is the complete opposite of what is recommended with PGP Whole Disk Encryption (now known as Symantec Desktop Encryption or something similar). When you use Sleep Mode on a WDE system, the next time you power it on it boots right to the windows desktop (or windows log on screen) without the need to provide the WDE passphrase. When you use Hibernate, the WDE passphrase must be entered the next time the system is powered on.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

 

[GrumpyMan]

He's a French model.......