(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I want to use truecrypt to do a full disk encryption, but it gives me a warning that I don't quite understand.



Now I noticed after working on quite a few laptops that some of them actually have no bios chip, and the bios is actually stored on the hard drive in some systems, could this be what this is referring to? I just want to encrypt my system without the fear that the system might not be bootable like this message is telling me. Thanks in advance.

This is a new Toshiba Satellite C655D by the way.

If you must have your puppy operating system encrypted in addition to your data, you could use puppy’s own heavy (not light) encryption to encrypt the Puppy OS, and put your data (documents, photos, etc), on a separate truecrypt volume / partition.

I agree with Barkin; it is not necessary or even desirable to encrypt the entire hard disk. You only need to encrypt the partition where you keep your Save file and/or data. I'm not sure it's even possible to encrypt the system files that Puppy needs to load in order to boot. How would the computer be able to decrypt them in order for Puppy to run?

So then its not possible to do this?

Wouldn't it be able to run and boot just fine after you enter pre-boot authentication password?

What exactly is it you want to accomplish? To prevent anyone but you from using the computer? To make sure no one but you can ever see what you've stored in the computer?

Most computers nowadays allow you to set a password in the BIOS. This will prevent anyone but you from using the computer, as long as you don't forget the password. However, this level of access control does not protect data stored on the hard disk, which can be read by removing the drive and reading it from another computer. The only way guaranteed to prevent anyone from seeing the data on a hard disk is to encrypt the data. The downside of encrypting data on a hard disk is, if you forget the password (encryption key) there is essentially no hope of recovering the data. So plan carefully before you encrypt.

I mainly just want to make it so nobody can access the data on the drive whether its in this computer, or if they try taking the hdd out and putting it in another computer.

I think i'm just going to take your advice and only encrypt the system partition.

I'm guessing there is no possibility that traces of files that were previously deleted within the OS partition can be on the other 2 partitions, I don't want previously deleted data to be recovered with file recovery software either.

AF Branden wrote: I don't want previously deleted data to be recovered with file recovery software either.

..then it has to overwritten, or zero'd out.

jpeps wrote:

AF Branden wrote: I don't want previously deleted data to be recovered with file recovery software either.

..then it has to overwritten, or zero'd out.

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/wipefreespace [never used it myself though]

Barkin wrote:

jpeps wrote:

AF Branden wrote: I don't want previously deleted data to be recovered with file recovery software either.

..then it has to overwritten, or zero'd out.

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/wipefreespace [never used it myself though]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/drive bs=512

jpeps wrote:dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/drive bs=512

That's not the equivalent of "wipe free space" ... http://www.noah.org/wiki/Dd_-_Destroyer_of_Disks#Erase_MBR

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

Randomize however many times you'd like with then zero out with

or individual files (as noted in the link)

dd if=/dev/zero of=somefile bs=1024 count=1M

Thanks guys, but I already know how to zero a drive. Whats the point in zeroing an encrypted drive though? If its encrypted doesn't that mean that all previously deleted files are encrypted too? Not to mention, its an added hassle to zero a drive every single time you delete sensitive files.

AF Branden wrote:... I don't want previously deleted data to be recovered with file recovery software either.

Free programs Recuva [windows] or PhotoRec [linux] will show what, if any, old data is recoverable.

AF Brandon is right though; while theoretically anything that had been recorded on the hard disk or flash drive may be recoverable, it would be encrypted, unreadable without the key.