Need encryption advice!

November 20, 2009 9:57 AM

Please help me figure out a way to encrypt a folder on my Windows XP machine, and then back it up on various media.

I would like to use one folder on my local drive to store sensitive documents of various types which I can access easily to work on, and save new ones there as easily as possible. These would be mostly pdfs and MS Office documents. (Not that it makes any difference, I am not talking about p0rn here). I would like this folder to be securely encrypted.

Then, I would like to be able to routinely back this folder up as well as other unencrypted folders for safekeeping on my home backup drive and other media such as usb sticks and the cloud.

I have looked at TrueCrypt briefly, and it turns me off because it talks about things I am not familiar with, such as "mounting volumes." However, if it would work well for what I want to do, then I might take the time to learn it. I just cannot be sure it will do what I want by looking at the TrueCrypt website, especially routinely backing up the encrypted drive to other media.

Can anyone help with suggestions?

Thanks!

posted by Rad_Boy to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: Honestly, TrueCrypt is perfect for this. Don't let the whole "mounting volumes" stuff scare you. To Windows, the mounted volume looks just like another hard drive. However, any files you copy into it or create inside of it are automatically encrypted. By using TrueCrypt, you only have to enter your password once, when you mount the volume. All the encryption stuff is then taken care of without any more intervention from you.
posted by johnio at 10:08 AM on November 20, 2009

Best answer: Oh yeah, I forgot to address the backing up of the data. For that you just need to copy the TrueCrypt file container to whatever medium you want to back it up on. That could be a DVD, USB drive, Dropbox, or anything else.
posted by johnio at 10:10 AM on November 20, 2009

Use EFS. This is only available in XP pro. If you only have XP home go with TrueCrypt. You can use windows backup to backup the folder or just copy it over. You can also use a batch file that you can schedule to do the same thing on whatever schedule you want. If interested I can post a link to a decent batch file.
posted by white_devil at 10:13 AM on November 20, 2009

Best answer: I wanted to do something similar. We have home info documents that are personal (financial info) and need to be backed up.
I shied away from TrueCrypt for the same reasons.
Then I tried using TrueCrypt for something else and saw how easy it really was. I have the encrypted folder (volume) on a USB hard drive. I run TrueCrypt as a stand-alone program (not installing the service).

It is easy, fast, and secure. Give it another try.
posted by Drasher at 10:18 AM on November 20, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you all for the information. It was very helpful. I will work on TrueCrypt as my solution!
posted by Rad_Boy at 10:34 AM on November 20, 2009