Backups - TrueCrypt Files

Your Computer's hard drive holds many folders, all of them related to your business.

Your would like to lock up all your business files in a container with a single password.

Here's how I do it:

In Windows Explorer I right-click on the top-level folder for my business, choose Properties, and wait while Windows tallies everything up.

In the example above, my files occupy over 6 Gigabytes. Caution: My work involves thousands of client files, so I use a lot of space. Your business data may be only 2GB or so.

If your data is held in separate folder trees, obtain the size of each tree, round up to the next Gigabyte, total them all, and add, oh I don't know, say 25%.

In this example I will assume you have arrived at 10GB as the total with safety margins (25%) built in. Quantities may vary.

Fire up TrueCrypt, Choose the Create Volume command, and select the option for "Create an encrypted file container". Then choose Next

Choose the option "Standard TrueCrypt Volume", then choose Next.

Type in a path and name. You can choose any simple path you like, such as "C:\", the root folder of your hard drive. Once the file container is created and you are out of TrueCrypt, you can move this file like any other file.

You now proceed through the same steps you took to create an encrypted volume (your external backup drive).

Nominate a size of (your size here!) 10 gigabytes.

I always use an 8-letter password of "password" when I'm starting off; it is easy to remember, and once everything is working I can change it to a meaningful password.

On my machine, encryption runs at about 1GB/minute. I trot off and make a nice cup of Lap Sang Soo Chong tea .....

Once it is finished, click the confirmation box and cancel out of TrueCrypt.

You now have a 10GB encrypted file on your computer hard drive. (My "B:" drive was mapped to my "D:\Blotter\20100116\" folder)

To access your drive manually (yes, we are going to provide a batch file!), open TrueCrypt and choose Select File.

Browse to your 10GB file and select it.

Back in the main TrueCrypt dialog box, select a drive letter (I have chosen drive R") and then choose the Mount command.

TrueCrypt shows you that drive letter "R" is mapped to your 10GB file container.

Exit TrueCrypt.

Windows File Explorer now shows that you have a drive R:\ with 10GB of space.

About 55MB of drive R: is consumed with Windows management.

You can drag all your corporate folders into this drive R:.

When you shut down Windows, TrueCrypt will relinquish the drive and your corporate data will be held safely and securely within the encrypted 10GB container "GREAVES".

Batch File to Open the Container

Title %0
"C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt.exe" /v d:\Greaves /l R /q

Above is the tiny batch file I use to open my file container.

The first line "Title" is documentary only.

The 2nd line invokes the TrueCrypt program and mounts my 10GB file (by now moved to D:\GREAVES) as the drive letter "R".

Drag the batch file into you "C:\Documents and Settings\ChrisL\Start Menu\Programs\Startup" folder, then each time you reboot your computer you will be prompted for the password, and you won't need to manually load TrueCrypt.

Don't Forget to Change Your Password!

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