How to encrypt your computer’s hard disk data and files for free

Posted on August 17, 2007 at 4:26 pm

Securing computer data through encryption software has become a clear necessity for many businesses and individuals carrying sensitive information on their laptops or USB flash drives. Unfortunately, many people do not encrypt their data because it is not easy to implement in Windows and the learning curve is too high. However, thanks to open source initiatives, you can use a completely free program called TrueCrypt to encrypt an entire hard drive, a USB flash drive, or even create a virtual encrypted disk in a file that acts as a real disk.

The cool thing about TrueCrypt is that you can create a virtual disk on your computer that will look and feel just like a normal disk on your computer. The “drive” will actually be a file stored on your computer, but it is completely encrypted and secure, so that when you turn off your computer, the data CANNOT be recovered unless you know the correct password. Of course, this means that if you forget your password, your data will be lost forever, so be very careful not to lose the password!

Just like any other drive, you can install programs on the drive, play videos and songs directly from the drive, etc. Basically, when you access any file on a TrueCrypt drive, it is unencrypted and loaded into RAM. Data is never written to the hard disk. The reason for this is because if the power were to suddenly go out and your computer turned off, the data in memory would be lost, but the data on the hard drive would still be accessible.

TrueCrypt even encrypts the file names and the folder names on the volume. The nice thing about TrueCrypt is that you can also create one of these virtual volumes on a USB stick and run the program off the stick, so that you can carry your encrypted data around with you safely. If you lose the stick, not a problem because it cannot be accessed unless the password is known!

TrueCrypt supports Windows Vista and Windows XP x64. It also runs on Linux and you can open a TrueCrypt volume on any of these platforms.

Once installed, click on Create Volume to get started. Choose Create a Standard TruCrypt Volume.

Next choose a location for the file. Click Select File, browse to where you want the file stored and type in a name for the file.

Next choose the encryption that you want. The default option is the lowest encryption method, AES. The last option in the drop-down is the highest encryption, but only choose that if you have LOTS of processing power and RAM. Remember, each time something is read from the virtual disk, it has to be decrypted and it will take more time to decrypt if the encryption is stronger.

Next choose the size for your virtual drive. Click Next and now type in a strong password. It is essential you type in a long and complex password so that it cannot be easily cracked. The program suggests it be a minimum of 20 characters, but that was definitely too long for me!

On the next scree, you want to move your mouse inside the TrueCrypt screen really fast in order to generate a really random header and master key. Choose the format of the drive and click Format.

Finally, click Exit to get back to the main screen. Choose a letter from the drive list and click Select File to pick the volume that you will be mounting.

Now click the Mount button at the bottom to “connect” or mount the file to the selected drive letter. You’ll be asked to type in the password that you entered while creating the virtual volume. Click OK and you should see the list updated:

Your new drive will now show up in Windows Explorer as a local disk.

Now you can use the drive normally. When you restart or turn off your computer, the drive is dismounted and the drive is inaccessible. When Windows starts, you will have to re-mount the drive with the correct password. This is a good way to kind of password protect a folder in Windows XP or Windows Vista. You’ll only be asked for the password whenever the computer is started up.

Any questions, post a comment! Enjoy!

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13 Responses to “How to encrypt your computer’s hard disk data and files for free”

ahmad said on : August 27th, 2007 at 12:24 am

thank you

piro said on : August 27th, 2007 at 2:44 am

very thank you

javad said on : August 27th, 2007 at 4:13 am

tank

ali said on : September 1st, 2007 at 9:02 pm

tanku

ali said on : September 2nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm

good

nowgone said on : December 7th, 2007 at 10:46 am

big tnx.

Matt said on : April 11th, 2008 at 12:16 am

why store your sensative files on your computer?
use http://www.swissdisk.com it will encrypt the files and then you can access them from any computer anywhere you have internet access and best of all you can try it FREE

don said on : April 11th, 2008 at 12:32 am

nice software!!! tnx

ismalynn said on : August 13th, 2008 at 12:01 am

Hello,when I reinstall new windows,some folder and files old username cannot be access because its encrypted,such as doc, ppt and jpg,the colour of folders and files are green.I only can access the folders and files that colour in black.How to unencrypted and to access that files in new windows,thanks…

Harris said on : January 11th, 2009 at 11:12 am

On my MAC, when I try to select device to locate the volume I want to encrypt, TruCrypt asks me for a password because ‘administrator privileges required”. I am the only user of my computer and I never set up any logon or administrator passwords.

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