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Discussion => Security => Topic started by: caerus on November 21, 2012, 02:00 am

Title: Truecrypt on a brand new hard drive - won't work
Post by: caerus on November 21, 2012, 02:00 am
I was wondering if anybody might have a solution.

So, I bought a brand new hard drive. SATA, 320GB. Installed a fresh non-pirated official Windows 7. After installing some basic programs started Truecrypt Hidden OS Wizard. After going just fine through all the steps and putting some sensitive-looking non-incriminating data on the outer volume it reboots and starts cloning Windows. At about 15% spits out an error and shuts down. I tried FAT16, FAT32 even NTSF, DBANed the hard drive, making a fresh install every time. Haven't tried with Ubuntu yet, but I'm about to give up considering that each time I try I have to spend at least 5 hours just to go back where I began. Can it be a hardware compatibility issue? Did anybody here experience a similar problem?
Title: Re: Truecrypt on a brand new hard drive - won't work
Post by: comsec on November 21, 2012, 02:56 am
You told us nothing

- what's the error
- 64 bit O/S and 64 bit TC version?
- did you try just regular full disc encryption instead of making hidden partition after it failed?

I'm betting you made the outer partition too small, and when you moved files into it that fucked up the inside partition so it can't boot. Don't fuck around with outer paritions :) Make them then add like a small text file or something. I gave my outer partition once like 2G playroom and yet it still corrupted the inside "hidden" partition when I moved some small files to it.

TC only makes containers on linux(ubuntu), you use LUKS to do full disc encryption
Title: Re: Truecrypt on a brand new hard drive - won't work
Post by: caerus on November 21, 2012, 03:11 am
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- what's the error
I'm almost positive it is Disk Read Error, but last time I tried was more than two months ago so I can't be sure.

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- 64 bit O/S and 64 bit TC version?

32 bit O/S 32 bit TC
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- did you try just regular full disc encryption instead of hidden partition?
No, I haven't. But I'm assuming that if LE ever get me they are going to find semi-legal ways to make me give out the password. I make encrypted flash drives that are not likely to be found for sensitive info and and keep casual browsing and news-reading to main machine.

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I'm betting you made the outer partition too small, and when you moved files into it that fucked up the inside partition so it can't boot. Don't fuck around with outer paritions  Make them then add like a small text file or something.
Outer partition - 220 gigs
Windows volume - 80 gigs
Title: Re: Truecrypt on a brand new hard drive - won't work
Post by: comsec on November 21, 2012, 03:32 am
Disk Read Error is a dreaded Windows 7 problem, usually a bad sector, nobody actually knows why this happens. Google it everybody seems to have this issue sooner or later.

I would just encrypt the entire drive, because you should always do that regardless, then for your evil business start up a linux .iso in virtualbox, save it as a snapshot, then encrypt the snapshot files and .VDI virtual hard drive with TC using plausible deniability containers, so if you're forced to decrypt, they get nothing.

You should also read the truecrypt documentation about wear leveling devices (flash, SSD, USB drives) basically it says don't do this because confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=wear-leveling