Steve Smith demonstrates the process of creating your own encrypted and hidden partition that is only view-able once mounted.
Episode #3-33 released on May 11, 2013
Encryption is a useful tool, and using it wisely is even better. Having an encrypted file container may cause most people to wonder what you are hiding in them, but using blank unpartitioned space on your hard drive is by far a more stealthy, and less likely to raise concern, because the encrypted partition does not appear unless you mount and decrypt it.
To create such a stealthy partition to encrypt secret documents, requires for some modification of your partitions. In Windows Vista or higher, open the disk manager, select any partition, right click the partition, and select shrink partition. You must decide how much space you may need because when you create the encrypted partition, you won't necessarily be able to resize it. If you have an empty drive you wish to use, then just make sure there is no volume. If you are using a drive with an existing volume, then when you shrink the current partition, create a new simple volume without a format, in essence, a raw partition. Do not assign a letter, or anything else, just create the raw partition.
Using TrueCrypt, select create a volume. Then select encrypt a non-system partition/drive. Use a standard TrueCrypt volume, and select the volume location. For the volume creation mode, you will select create encrypted volume and format it. Under encryption options, you may select any encryption algorithms, however, the more the better. If you selected a partition or disk, the volume size shall already be defined. Enter a password for the volume, the longer the better, but avoid dictionary words. Then you shall click on format. Once completed, click on exit, not next.
To mount this hidden partition, you can click on auto-mount devices, after selecting a drive letter you desire.
To dismount the drive, select the drive you wish to dismount, then click on dismount. You may, also, click on dismount all.
Next week, I shall be demonstrating how to install the latest version of Ubuntu, onto a USB key drive that you can use as your own portable operating system, and even use as your universal installer for any computers you wish.
Remember to like this episode if you were interested in today's topic, share if you think someone else could benefit from the topic, and subscribe if you want to learn more. For the show notes of this episode and others, for more information on other ways to subscribe to our show, to subscribe to our weekly newsletter, and how to participate by submitting your questions, comments, suggestions, and stories, head over to TQAWeekly.com.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : Jonny Lee Hart | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Productions