Thinkpads Forum

I am putting together a T61 and had decided on the 160GB 7200 RPM HD until a friend told me within the past few days that he had his computer stolen. This brings up past concerns I have had about leaving personal info on a computer that I carry around with me everyday (university (grad. school/research), city, travel). Now I am re-thinking my HD options and considering the newly offered 200GB 7200RPM Encrypted HD.

The difference in cost is about $120 for a computer that I will be keeping for at least 5 years.

-Is the encryption element and additional 40GB a good idea? (I will be living on this T61: research, papers, notetaking, video, pictures, a number of academic programs, exam taking, personal and financial data, etc).

Some other questions I have regarding an encrypted HD:

-If the HD crashes or you accidentally erase a file, is it more difficult (or impossible) to recover data?

We can use our laptops for exams. We are given a special examination program that we must install...it essentially locks us out of our computer except for their proprietary simple word processing program. Their program leaves an encrypted copy of our exam on our computer as a back-up and the original is submitted directly to the school at the conclusion of the exam.

-Could an encrypted HD create problems with this process?

-Are there any detriments to this larger encrypted hard drive? Is there any difference in terms of stability or function?

Should I stay with the 160GB 7200rpm un-encrypted HD or would you recommend the 200GB 7200rpm encrypted HD?

Thank you very much, I really appreciate your help!

I can't answer all of your questions but I would recommend the 7200 rpm 200 GB UNencrypted Hitachi 7k200, recently selling for $139 at NewEgg.com after MIR.

Whether you decide to upgrade to the above 200 GB drive or stick with your 160, for encryption purposes, I would recommend you use the latest version of TrueCrypt (which is v. 5.1). TrueCrypt is a freeware "state of the art" encryption program that is, imo, the best encryption program available at any price, yet thanks to the generosity of its authors, it is totally free! Don't be put off by the fact it is freeware. It is a very slick and sophisticated program.

With TrueCrypt, you can now encrypt the entire system partition or drive, which requires you to enter a password before windows boots, or you can choose to just encrypt a specific partition or a file "container." A file container can be any size you choose and appears in your OS as a filename of your choice, however everything in it is encrypted. Until you enter the password and "mount" it through TrueCrypt, it is totally encrypted with your choice of one or a combination of the strongest encryption algorithms currently available. Once unencrypted and "mounted," the file container appears as an additional drive on your machine and you can access and run files or even programs located within it. To encrypt additional files, all you have to do is save or move them to that mounted file container which appears as a drive. Once unmounted (which occurs automatically when you shut down), all files within it are again encrypted. Sounds more complicated than it is. Anyway, whether you decide to encrypt the entire system partition or just a file container, I would rely on TrueCrypt.

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=version-history

Hi Pae77,

Thank you VERY much, I am really grateful for your help!

TrueCrypt sounds like the best of both worlds. If I understand you correctly, I would be able to create a file "container" (maybe for example called "Encrypted") and put all my sensitive files in there. The rest of my files I could leave as is (like notes, pictures/video/music, etc). This would simplify most of the data in my HD by not being encrypted and protect the limited amount of material I might feel is sensitive (like documents with my SS#, etc).

Do I have this concept correct?

Then it sounds like I would be better off saving the $120+ it would cost me for the 200GB and sticking with the 160GB HD 7200 rpm for now (and using TrueCrypt). As you pointed out, for that kind of money, I could always upgrade later...and by the time I get close to filling up the 160GB, 300GB or more will probably be available for the same or less amount of money.

Is this sound thinking?

Do you use TrueCrypt yourself? Have you ever heard of any problems associated with it, or can you think of any problems it might cause in general, or specific to Vista?

Lastly, how complicated a process is it to install a new HD? Apart from the backed up document files, how do you boot-up a computer without an operating system? Would you boot-up with the OS disk in the drive, be given partition options and then allow the OS (like Vista) to install itself? (it this the disk that you can get from Lenovo for an extra roughly $49?).

You certainly don't need to answer all of these questions... really, thank you very much again!!

Yes, sounds like you have understood the concept of how you can use TrueCrypt to protect your sensitive data. I have been using TrueCrypt myself to protect sensitive files in a file container as discussed above for many years. There is an excellent beginners tutorial on how to get started using TrueCrypt at the TrueCrypt site I linked to in the previous post which I recommend you review to get the most out of the program and to avoid potential problems.

Re installing a new hard drive: Basically the simplest way to move everything over to a new hard drive is to simply "clone" (copy) your existing hard drive (OS, programs and data) over to the new hard drive. There are programs such as Acronis True Image Home which make this very easy. There are many threads in this forum discussing how to do this in detail. Just search on "clone hard drive" or "install new hard drive" and that should pull up plenty of info on how to do this.

Thank you very much pae77... I feel much better about this HD decision (going with the 160GB 7200 rpm for the time being) and I am really comforted to know that you have had such a great experience using TrueCrypt!!

Thank you so much again for your help with this!!

Agree totally with pae77 - have been using TrueCrypt for over a year and can confirm it is a powerful Freeware utility that is not system hungry and extremely easy to use - Highly Recommended

Outstanding . . . that is great to hear!

Thank you Peak2Peak for confirming Pae77's very positive experiend with your own . . . I really appreciate it and feel even better about the decision to go with an UNencrypted HD and instead use TrueCrypt to selectively choose those files I want encrypted.

Thank you again Pae77 and Peak2Peak!!