Thinkpads Forum

I used Truecrypt to encrpt a whole 160GB external drive. Now, I want to backup this encrypted drive using a backup imager like Arconis Tureimage.

Would the encryption affect the backup/image? Any unforeseen errors or incompatibilities that would cause me loose backed up data?

thanks!

kunfuchopsticks wrote:I used Truecrypt to encrpt a whole 160GB external drive. Now, I want to backup this encrypted drive using a backup imager like Arconis Tureimage.

Would the encryption affect the backup/image? Any unforeseen errors or incompatibilities that would cause me loose backed up data?

thanks!

I don't see why it would. Acronis doesn't (or shouldn't) care what you're backing up, just as long as it can run in the first place and read your HD.

With that said, I've never attempted to back up an entire volume before. Let us know how it works.

Happy tweaking.

I never used the truecrypt fulldisk encryption so cannot tell for sure how this is done by truecrypt. I used other fulldisk encryption software and Acronis TrueImage without any problems, but there are some issues with some of the encryption software. If i have a unencrypted 200gb disk with only 50gb stored on the disk the Acronis TI backup will be 50gb as well or less if compression is enabled in Acronis TI for the backup. If the disk is encrypted with DriveCrypt Pluspack (DCPP) Acronis TI have to do a sector-by-sector backup and then the backup will be the same size as the disk even if it's empty. So in this case the backup will be 4-5 times larger when encrypted. Also DCPP have something called bootauth which is the password prompt before the OS is loaded in case the encrypted disk is the bootdisk so you are able to boot from the encrypted disk. Bootauth change the mbr in Windows. Acronis TI is not able to backup the bootauth so in DCPP i have to create a rescue disk which is created in case of a failure where the OS does not boot and you need to decrypt the disk for further troubleshooting. After a restore using Acronis TI in this case i have to use the rescue disk to fix the mbr to be able to boot windows again. So using DCPP and Acronis TI the backup will be sector-by-sector which will make the backup the same size as the disk and a rescue disk is needed in case of a restore.

I also used another fulldisk encryption software which is Utimaco Safeguard Easy and with this encryption Software Acronis TI seems to work without detecting that the disk is encrypted so a sector-by-sector backup is not required. If there are issues in case of restore using safeguard easy i don't know.

So i cannot give you the answer how it works using truecrypt, but it could be the case that you need to do a sector-by-sector backup and it could be a good idea to check if the restore will work and if some special steps is required. Maybe you can find the answer in the official Acronis support forum or the truecrypt forum. I find it hard to believe you are the first one that want to know about Acronis TI and TrueCrypt.

Hey thanks for the reply guys.

I think I'll go with the safe way out and just copy paste to backup the encrypted drive when it's mounted. I assume when I do this, it gets decrypted in process? no?

kunfuchopsticks wrote:Hey thanks for the reply guys.

I think I'll go with the safe way out and just copy paste to backup the encrypted drive when it's mounted. I assume when I do this, it gets decrypted in process? no?

If you copy files to a unencrypted volume the files will be stored unencrypted, but i'm not sure if that's what you mean about copy/paste. There is a lot of people asking the same question in the Acronis support forum so i'm sure you can find the answer there.