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I only have data on one partition. The only other existing partition on the hard drive is that 100 MB system reserved. My doubt is whether, leaving the drive itself decrypted and only encrypting the partition makes it easier to defeat the encryption or, in other words, if it allows some kind of exploit that would not be possible if the whole HDD was encrypted.
Which one of the two options would you chose?
I'm using TrueCrypt by the way and this is not an SSD.
Thank you very much! :)
cybergofer
Posted 2014-01-27T04:58:56.500
Reputation: 33
You might want to use the comments for comments just to keep things neat ^^ . And as much as I hate to remind people, if an answer solved your issue, you might want to pick it as the correct one - it isn't about the reputation, but unanswered questions get bounced up every so often, and I occationally try to answer these only to find that I have already ;p. – Journeyman Geek – 2014-01-27T06:28:45.097
Thanks mgkrebbs! That's great to know! I didn't know that site existed heheh :) – cybergofer – 2014-01-27T07:07:20.583
Thanks Journeyman Geek! I understand! that was an hilarious comic strip! lol Sometimes we can get carried away by our imagination when it comes to hackers lol :)) That makes sense about the plausibility but I don't believe that someone would try to harm me in order to obtain access to the data on my computer. I'm not that rich heheh. I'm more concerned about someone stealing it and using all my personal information in it connected to my personal identification, passwords for absolutely everything in my life, passwords to bank accounts etc... – cybergofer – 2014-01-27T07:07:35.913
So I'll probably just go with standard encryption heheh. Whoever has access to my computer can basically take over my life lol. – cybergofer – 2014-01-27T07:07:56.947
The main reason why I decided to encrypt the whole partition as opposed to specific folders is that, with Windows and most other software, it's practically impossible to keep your information on those folders alone. It ends up being recorded (temp files etc) all over your computer :) That's how I see it at least. Also, some things would be highly impractical (a headache) to encrypt without restricting access to the whole partition such as information stored on the browser, etc. And there would be a huge chance that I would overlook something since I'm far from being a security expert heheh. – cybergofer – 2014-01-27T07:08:35.807
My main concern with the encryption was, not so much that someone would be able to decrypt it but, more that someone would circumvent the need for decrypting it by getting access to my password (some record of it on other parts of the HDD or even in the RAM memory heheh). That's fundamentally why I decided to encrypt, at least, the whole partition. To avoid being "betrayed" by the software or hardware heheh. – cybergofer – 2014-01-27T07:08:54.137
As someone with forensics training, its more likely that someone trying to work out your password with brute force it, use rainbow tables, or simply guess. Hardware level password recovery is almost impossible – Journeyman Geek – 2014-01-27T07:10:00.427
Wow that last comment really made it for me! ;) That was my main concern. Thank you very much! I don't believe my password can be accessed through brute force. It's a very difficult password lol. Thanks a million! :) – cybergofer – 2014-01-27T07:13:53.187