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I am looking for a way to lock BD disks, so I can do a backup and not be worried that someone may access the data on them.
I thought to make a zip and protect it with password, then burn it, but this is dangerous, since if the disk gets damaged, and the archive can't be read, then all the data on it will be impossible to retrieve.
So I was wondering if there was a way to "format" a disk to be password protected and encrypted; so you can burn it and then access to it anywhere, using the password. If the disk is damaged, you can still recover other files, beside the ones on the damaged blocks.
I did a search but all that I get is how to protect a disk with a movie on it; which is not what I am trying to achieve.
I use Windows 7, the best would be something that can be read by OSX and Linux too, but would be great just to have something for either OSX or Windows 7
rataplan
Posted 2015-01-02T20:08:32.557
Reputation: 394
2@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 the issue with the marked duplicate is the only answer is to use a truecrypt container. 1) Truecrypt is no longer in active development, and 2) you can not recover it from a damaged disk if you only have partial file recovery. This question is a different scope than your marked duplicate as this question is more concerned about file recovery than the duplicate. – Scott Chamberlain – 2015-01-02T20:12:09.030
Sadly that won't work as solution: truecrypt is out of business since years; and I can't afford to use something that is not maintained not considered secure anymore – rataplan – 2015-01-02T20:13:11.037
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Because the question was closed I will try to answer you here. Blu Ray disks have no native encryption support like you are looking for, you need to use some form of encrypted file container. However most all encrypted containers run in to the same issue you ran in to with a single zip file, partial corruption causes the whole archive to fail. One option is to use a "Parchive" to split the encrypted backup in to many smaller files that contain redundancy so if one part is damaged it can be recovered if the other parts are undamaged.
– Scott Chamberlain – 2015-01-02T20:19:13.390Just because the existing answers may not be satisfactory, doesn't make it a different question. Need newer/different answers? That's what Bounties are for. ;) Regarding the dupe: both the accepted answer (based on comments on that answer from the OP) covers the concern about a single container becoming corrupted. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-01-02T20:20:47.883
@ScottChamberlain: thanks for the reply; I was hoping that you could encrypt a disk like you do with hardware, but then I realized that you also need a security chip to do so, and obviously the BD-R does not have one, so can't act as a regular HD. At this point I guess that it is safer to just buy thumbdrives; I can encrypt them as whole, and overwrite them every day for each backup. Thanks again for your help. – rataplan – 2015-01-02T20:32:06.610
@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007: what is the point of an answer if it does not fit the user case or is outdated? Things change, and an answer that is not fitting a question, is as good as no answer at all. The issue is not only how to encrypt, and be sure that the data can be retrieved, but also that the encrypted backup is SAFE...this is not my holiday vacation backup, but work stuff :) Truecrypt is out of the picture; any container can get corrupted so how is my question answered? "you can't do that"...this is the answer, so instead is better to dupe it? I do not understand the logic here. – rataplan – 2015-01-02T20:38:13.280
That other Q with it's accepted answer from 2011 recommending Truecrypt is outdated & could be dangerous now, like recommending WindowsXP. I think what you want is to use an encrypted filesystem, but your "access to it anywhere, using the password" requirement causes problems. Editing your Q or a new Q about using encrypted read-only backups (ignoring being on a BR-disk or HD or tape or punchcards) that can survive a little corruption here & there might be better – Xen2050 – 2015-01-02T20:49:07.307
@Xen2050: I defined the user case as Linux/Win/OSX, but also specified that if I can get this working on Win only, I would be already happy :) The BD requirement has to be specified...as you can see the questions here gets closed like nothing, just because they sound similar in scope, and I believe that it is different to write on a BD compared to a regular drive, since Windows native encryption won't work on a BD as whole disk. Encrypt in a container is as risky as encrypt in a rar/zip file, so that would not work either. Amazing how I am the only one to have such problems :) – rataplan – 2015-01-02T22:18:45.467
1Not the only one, the same issue exists for any encrypted backup - don't want any bad sectors to ruin much more than that sector. I didn't mean an encrypted container file like truecrypt or LUKS, I mean each file encrypted on it's own, so if one file is damaged the rest are ok. Like gpg encrypting every single file or how eCryptFS or EncFS work (just need to keep a few backup copies of their "config" files, and *never forget the passphrase!* – Xen2050 – 2015-01-02T22:33:21.827
Oh, I see what you mean; but how do you actually decrypt them on the fly, when access it? You go one by one, and manually decrypt them? That may work; I need to evaluate the implications of doing that, in terms of time and efforts. Also, do I have to save the key like I do with the windows encrypted drive? I have used OSX encryption and you don't need to carry any key from a computer to another; you just need to type the right password. – rataplan – 2015-01-02T22:39:38.450
I can recommend the software dvdisaster against partly unreadable CD/DVD/BR. It adds additional data (default 14%, configureable) to the same or another disk and as long as the damaged area doesnt exceed the configured value it is fully recoverable. – sweet home – 2015-01-02T23:30:40.660