Best/easiest method of encryption.

chin_grin

Hi,

Just looking for a few (preferably free) ideas or applications to encrypt the whole drive or volumes on a drive.

I'm wondering would creating an automated task with 7zip and password protect files be any use to me?

I'm aware of TrueCrypt, but this involves a lot of interaction on my part and am wondering is there an on-the-fly alternative? (I'm not lazy...it's just in case I forget! :pac:).

Thanks a mil.

CreepingDeath

chin_grin wrote: »

I'm aware of TrueCrypt, but this involves a lot of interaction on my part

What do you mean ?

You can create a simple file based container, eg. a 10Gb file which acts as a virtual drive.
So anytime you want to use it, you just need to enter the password.
You can save it as a "favourite volume" and TrueCrypt will ask for your password each time you login if you want.

I haven't used TrueCrypt for full drive encryption, I just encrypt what I need to.

The likes of 7-Zip are just for compression, they wouldn't be as secure and you would have to unzip the files to use them.

Have you tried using Truecrypt at all? It's easy enough.

chin_grin

CreepingDeath wrote: »

Have you tried using Truecrypt at all? It's easy enough.

Hi, thanks a mil for your reply.

Ah yeah I've tested truecrypt with the logical drive (exactly the method you use). But the downside is that it involves a lot of interaction on my part: That is, I need to open up the application, browse to the file, enter the passkey and then copy/edit files from there.

I'm just wondering is there any method that you can set up from the get-go and be sure that it's running away without changing anything thereafter?

I swear I'm not lazy! Just trying to find out the most hassle-free method of encryption.

MiniNukinfuts

Have a look at this page, it might be some help: LINKY

mickoneill30

chin_grin wrote: »

Hi, thanks a mil for your reply.

Ah yeah I've tested truecrypt with the logical drive (exactly the method you use). But the downside is that it involves a lot of interaction on my part: That is, I need to open up the application, browse to the file, enter the passkey and then copy/edit files from there.

I'm just wondering is there any method that you can set up from the get-go and be sure that it's running away without changing anything thereafter?

I swear I'm not lazy! Just trying to find out the most hassle-free method of encryption.

If the file is always in the same location you could write a small batch file to automatically decrypt the file and mount it.
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=command-line-usage

So double click batch file & type in password.
e.g.
truecrypt /q /v d:\myencryptedfile

But if it's stored on your local disk it is available on boot up so you can use Auto-Mount
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=main-program-window
That gets rid of the double click

mickoneill30

CreepingDeath wrote: »

The likes of 7-Zip are just for compression, they wouldn't be as secure and you would have to unzip the files to use them.

You can compress & encrypt files with AES-256.
You don't have to unzip the whole zip file to use one file from the zip. You can open an archive in 7Zip and view the files in the Zip. Then if you want to uncompress one it'll ask you for the encryption password. The big problem there is that you can view the file names without decrypting the files. The filename could have info in it you don't want someone to see.

Razzuh

Well since you only said preferably free, one of the popular paid options for full disk encryption is Symantec PGP. It encrypts the whole drive and you have to enter a password straight away when you boot. After that it does everything on-the-fly (with a performance hit obviously). Very pricey though, over $100 I think, it's really aimed at corporate market.

TrueCrypt is a really good and reliable free tool as others have pointed out. It's definitely your best option. If you put some time in to setting it up right so only have to enter a password once as suggested above then you can't get any better. It's seamless after that. 7zip would be far more hassle I think. It will work slower if there's any substantial amount of data because you'll constantly be unzipping and then zipping again.

Razzuh

mickoneill30 wrote: »

You can compress & encrypt files with AES-256.
You don't have to unzip the whole zip file to use one file from the zip. You can open an archive in 7Zip and view the files in the Zip. Then if you want to uncompress one it'll ask you for the encryption password. The big problem there is that you can view the file names without decrypting the files. The filename could have info in it you don't want someone to see.

I'm pretty sure 7zip has an option to encrypt file names, so you have to enter the key to view what's in the archive.

eirman

Razzuh wrote: »

TrueCrypt is a really good and reliable free tool as others have pointed out. It's definitely your best option. If you put some time in to setting it up right so only have to enter a password once as suggested above then you can't get any better.

I second the above .... You cannot get easier than having to enter your password/phrase once ... after that encryption and decryption is automatic and on the fly.