Encrypt External Hard Drive

[merfman]

Hey, i was just wondering if anyone know's of a good encryption software that i can use to encrpyt my external hard drive.

i tried to download true crypt, but i want to be able to encrpyt the complete hard drive not individual files. But on Truecrypt it only allows me to encrypt single files.

So i'm hoping that anyone here has/knows of a software that i can use to encrpyt the hard drive, while all the files are still on the drive, instead of trying to take the files off and then encrypt it.


P.S. i have a 250GB Seagate FreeAgent Drive if that helps any.

Thanks for any help
merfman

 

[account73]

The Seagate FreeAgent hard drive actualy comes with a built in encryption tool on the hard drive. I dont know how good it is, as i've never used it, but it might be worth taking a look at.

 

[AudioVayne]

I don't think you setup TC correctly...You can format and encrypt the entire partition...

Click 'Create Volume'
'Standard TC Volume'
'Select Device'
'Select Algorithm'

Etc Etc

 

[azukre]

PGP can do whole disk encryption...

 

[DelJo63]

consider carefully;
If the drive is relocated to another system, then how will you get access to the data?
You will need a tool with the same code (like PGP) to do the job or be able to install
the tool of your choice.

 

[merfman]

so a co-worker of mine, pointed out Universal Shield for me to use to encrypt my external hard drive. and so i decided to go home and install it.

So here the run down of what happened.

I install the software and run all the working applications, even go online to check and see if i need to remove the files first then encrypt it, but it says i dont need to. So i encrpyt the complete drive, all my personal files and what not. But then i go to look at my pictures from family trips and all, but for some reason (i have the files views as thumbnails) i can only see the actually file, but when i click on the file to preview it or even open it i get a message saying,

F:\My Pictures\Family Trips\2008\Family.jpg
Paint Cannot read this file.
This is not a valid bitmap file, or its format is not currently supported

So i need someone's help to get these images back, becuase they more so have centimental value, cause these are pictures of my kids growing up and i dont have any copies (which will be the first thing to do if i get them back) and i cant afford to lose all theses images.

On another note, when i go into Universal Shield it shows the drive as not encrpyted and theres nothing i can do to get these images back up.

So please someone if you have any instructions on how to get these images back please help me out.

Thanks
merfman

 

[LookinAround]

1) I'm guessing Paint and thumbnails are all trying to read encrypted files which it can't so they give you a corrupted message

2) As warned earlier.. you must take extra careful precautions before anyone takes the encryption path. That includes
> a. Knowing how to recover failed hardware / disk drives that are encrypted (you can't do a simple disk restore for recovery!)
> b. Knowing how to run your apps with encrypted files

There are usually SPECIAL backup tools to backup and save your encryption keys. (Without them you'll never see your unencrypted files again!) And these almost always require vendor specific tools to save/backup these keys. Simply doing disk file or even disk ghost backup/restores will not recover lost encryption keys!

 

[DelJo63]

did you see this? http://www.everstrike.com/online-help/encryption.htm

more directly: http://www.everstrike.com/online-help/how-to-decrypt-a-file.htm

 

[oink]

free agent encryption problem

capture1.jpg - this was the normal thing that i do to access my files. i just click "Open Encrypted Folder" and i was able to decrypt my files.

capture2.jpg and capture3.pg - this what i get now when i open the security tab. after clicking (capture2.jpg) the next thing that will appear is capture3.jpg. even if i key in password then creat new folder it will just prompt me and then return back to the home menu.

tried to reinstall the seagate manager, but problem still persist.

please help. I wasn't able to decrypt all my files..