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Support => Technical support => Topic started by: srforum02 on April 14, 2012, 03:18 am

Title: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: srforum02 on April 14, 2012, 03:18 am
I have a couple questions about NTFS, partitioning, and creating a hidden TrueCrypt volume, but first, here’s the setup I started with:

Windows 7 system with one physical hard drive that had the following partitions:
- System (no drive letter) – 100 MB NTFS – Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
- OS (C:)  - 800 GB NTFS – Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition), 5% full, 95% free
- Recovery (D:) – 11 GB NTFS – Healthy (Primary Partition)

I then shrank the C-drive as much as Windows 7 would allow, to 424 GB, and added a (K:) partition with 350 GB. Windows marked this as a Logical Drive.
When I tried to create the TrueCrypt hidden volume, I got a nasty “boing” sound and a message that the partition for the hidden drive had to be 5% bigger than the system partition.

Questions:
1. Is it correct to say that when TrueCrypt talks about the “system partition,” it’s referring to my C-drive rather than the partition marked “System” by Microsoft?
2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how can the partition for the hidden drive ever be 5% more than the system partition? With NTFS, any partition can only get shrunk to about 52% of its original size, meaning that  the new partition carved out of the remaining space could only be smaller, not larger.
3. If the answer to #1 is no, what's causing the problem, seeing as my 350-GB K-drive was far larger than the 100-MB partition dubbed "System" by Windows.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: TreyWingo104 on April 14, 2012, 10:32 am
Dude I wish I could help but Im interested in all of this , after you create the new partions successfully what are you going to do next for virtualization?  Im an absolute newb to the whole premise but I can learn pretty quickly and right now reading everything I can find on this topic. 

Theres a very lejit looking dude "Looker" (name on forums) who I think sells USB flashes with everything you need but its out of my price range right now , and I think learning about everything is just as important as having it.  If you can give me any advice I'd greatly appreciate it.  So far my understanding level is that virtualization or having a VM in this case is essentially having the ability to run your computer from outside its default OS...whether from .iso cd or flash drive (which seems to be the best/most efficient/powerful way of setting it up)..... essentially this gives a layer of protection and anon (if its done right) right?  Thats about as far as Ive gotten....
Title: Re: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: TreyWingo104 on April 16, 2012, 12:07 pm
I have a couple questions about NTFS, partitioning, and creating a hidden TrueCrypt volume, but first, here’s the setup I started with:

Windows 7 system with one physical hard drive that had the following partitions:
- System (no drive letter) – 100 MB NTFS – Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
- OS (C:)  - 800 GB NTFS – Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition), 5% full, 95% free
- Recovery (D:) – 11 GB NTFS – Healthy (Primary Partition)

I then shrank the C-drive as much as Windows 7 would allow, to 424 GB, and added a (K:) partition with 350 GB. Windows marked this as a Logical Drive.
When I tried to create the TrueCrypt hidden volume, I got a nasty “boing” sound and a message that the partition for the hidden drive had to be 5% bigger than the system partition.

Questions:
1. Is it correct to say that when TrueCrypt talks about the “system partition,” it’s referring to my C-drive rather than the partition marked “System” by Microsoft?
2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how can the partition for the hidden drive ever be 5% more than the system partition? With NTFS, any partition can only get shrunk to about 52% of its original size, meaning that  the new partition carved out of the remaining space could only be smaller, not larger.
3. If the answer to #1 is no, what's causing the problem, seeing as my 350-GB K-drive was far larger than the 100-MB partition dubbed "System" by Windows.


I came across something that might be useful to you....

On Win7 the OS boots from a separate partion and unless you have escalated priv you cant read/write to that partion....The system itself is actually on a different partion (thats the part with no drive letter)
______________________________________________________________

in the TC pdf it says that by default it DOES NOT encrypt that partion but will give you the option to...hope that helps somehow
Title: Re: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: no_pain on April 16, 2012, 12:23 pm
perhaps try to make a partition with a linux distri along with your win7 partition.

And before you do anything encrypt the whole HDD. So if you start your machine you have to give a passwort to decrypt the HDD incl. bootsector.
After this you can choose which OS to boot.

Or the oldschool .... all on a stick for SR thing. 
Title: Re: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: TreyWingo104 on April 17, 2012, 03:12 am
perhaps try to make a partition with a linux distri along with your win7 partition.

And before you do anything encrypt the whole HDD. So if you start your machine you have to give a passwort to decrypt the HDD incl. bootsector.
After this you can choose which OS to boot.

Or the oldschool .... all on a stick for SR thing.

Hey it seems like you prolly know ur shit man.  can you explain something real quick, Im using Vista and I used EasEUS to make a new partion for the hidden OS thing, do I need to first encrypt the whole system and then use that option?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Trey
Title: Re: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: srforum02 on April 17, 2012, 04:21 pm
perhaps try to make a partition with a linux distri along with your win7 partition.

And before you do anything encrypt the whole HDD. So if you start your machine you have to give a passwort to decrypt the HDD incl. bootsector.
After this you can choose which OS to boot.

Or the oldschool .... all on a stick for SR thing.

Hey it seems like you prolly know ur shit man.  can you explain something real quick, Im using Vista and I used EasEUS to make a new partion for the hidden OS thing, do I need to first encrypt the whole system and then use that option?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.
-Trey
Trey:
I suggest this:
- Install TrueCrypt if you haven't already.
- In the menu, click on System.
- Click on Create Hidden Operating System. There's a bit of info on what a hidden OS means. Click OK.
- Then next screen has the title "Hidden Operating System" and then a large chunk of text that begins, "In the following steps...." Read this carefully. It doesn't say you'd have to encrypt the whole system first, so it looks like the answer to your question is no.

I hope this helps.
Title: Re: Windows 7 Partitioning, Creating TrueCrypt Hidden Volume
Post by: srforum02 on April 17, 2012, 04:27 pm
I have a couple questions about NTFS, partitioning, and creating a hidden TrueCrypt volume, but first, here’s the setup I started with:

Windows 7 system with one physical hard drive that had the following partitions:
- System (no drive letter) – 100 MB NTFS – Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
- OS (C:)  - 800 GB NTFS – Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition), 5% full, 95% free
- Recovery (D:) – 11 GB NTFS – Healthy (Primary Partition)

I then shrank the C-drive as much as Windows 7 would allow, to 424 GB, and added a (K:) partition with 350 GB. Windows marked this as a Logical Drive.
When I tried to create the TrueCrypt hidden volume, I got a nasty “boing” sound and a message that the partition for the hidden drive had to be 5% bigger than the system partition.

Questions:
1. Is it correct to say that when TrueCrypt talks about the “system partition,” it’s referring to my C-drive rather than the partition marked “System” by Microsoft?
2. If the answer to #1 is yes, how can the partition for the hidden drive ever be 5% more than the system partition? With NTFS, any partition can only get shrunk to about 52% of its original size, meaning that  the new partition carved out of the remaining space could only be smaller, not larger.
3. If the answer to #1 is no, what's causing the problem, seeing as my 350-GB K-drive was far larger than the 100-MB partition dubbed "System" by Windows.

Thanks to those who responded. I decided to skip the above approach and go with the combination of encrypting the whole drive and using an OS on a USB drive. That raises a different problem, so I'll start a new topic on that.