I maed you an encrypted volume but then I losted it.

December 27, 2008 12:41 PM

I encrypted a bunch of stuff using TrueCrypt, but I forgot where I put it. Help me find it? Yes, I feel dumb.

Three months ago I encrypted a bunch of files so my housesitter couldn't access them. I remember the password, but I don't know where I put the volume. Since you can name it anything, how can I go about finding it again?

Windows XP desktop with 2 internal hard drives. Could be on either one. The volume would be around 10G in size.

posted by desjardins to computers & internet (6 comments total)

search for a .tc file?
posted by 517 at 12:54 PM on December 27, 2008

You could use the Windows XP Search function (in the start menu) to list all files greater than say 5GB in size? There's an option to just look in Local Hard Drives but it'll probably still take a while.
posted by JonB at 12:56 PM on December 27, 2008

Did you enable "Never Save History"? If not, the application should have a log of the last 20 files/devices you attempted to mount as TrueCrypt volumes. From the documentation page for the main program window:

Never Save History

If this option disabled, the file names and/or paths of the last twenty files/devices that were attempted to be mounted as TrueCrypt volumes will be saved in the History file (whose content can be displayed by clicking on the Volume combo-box in the main window). When this option is enabled, TrueCrypt clears the registry entries created by the Windows file selector for TrueCrypt, and sets the "current directory" to the user's home directory (in traveler mode, to the directory from which TrueCrypt was launched) whenever a container or keyfile is selected via the Windows file selector. Therefore, the Windows file selector will not remember the path of the last mounted container (or the last selected keyfile). Furthermore, if this option is enabled, the volume path input field in the main TrueCrypt window is cleared whenever you hide TrueCrypt.

posted by macguffin at 1:06 PM on December 27, 2008

Download WinDirStat and look for the largest files on your drives

It will also show you files by extension.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 1:20 PM on December 27, 2008

Along the same lines as WINDirStat - SpaceMonger
posted by bbyboi at 1:44 PM on December 27, 2008

You could search for files >5 GB created in a time frame around when you made the encrypted archive. That should narrow down the possibilities, then you might get a clue from the file name or try mounting them in TC.
posted by arcticseal at 5:37 PM on December 27, 2008