TrueCrypt Volumes on CDs and DVDs
If you want a TrueCrypt volume to be stored on a CD or a DVD, first create a file-hosted TrueCrypt
container on a hard drive and then burn it onto a CD/DVD using any CD/DVD burning software (or,
under Windows XP or later, using the CD burning tool provided with the operating system).
Remember that if you need to mount a TrueCrypt volume that is stored on a read-only medium
(such as a CD/DVD) under Windows 2000, you must format the TrueCrypt volume as FAT. The
reason is that Windows 2000 cannot mount NTFS file system on read-only media (Windows XP
and later versions of Windows can).
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Hardware/Software RAID, Windows Dynamic Volumes
TrueCrypt supports hardware/software RAID as well as Windows dynamic volumes.
Windows Vista or later
: Dynamic volumes are displayed in the ‘Select Device’ dialog window
as
\Device\HarddiskVolume
N
.
Windows XP/2000/2003
: If you intend to format a Windows dynamic volume as a TrueCrypt
volume, keep in mind that after you create the Windows dynamic volume (using the Windows Disk
Management tool), you must restart the operating system in order for the volume to be
available/displayed in the ‘Select Device’ dialog window of the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard.
Also note that, in the ‘Select Device’ dialog window, a Windows dynamic volume is
not
displayed
as a single device (item). Instead,
all
volumes that the Windows dynamic volume consists of are
displayed and you can select
any
of them in order to format the
entire
Windows dynamic volume.
Additional Notes on Volume Creation
After you click the ‘Format’ button in the Volume Creation Wizard window (the last step), there will
be a short delay while your system is being polled for additional random data. Afterwards, the
master key, header key, secondary key (XTS mode), and salt, for the new volume will be
generated, and the master key and header key contents will be displayed.
For extra security, the portions of the randomness pool, master key, and header key can be
prevented from being displayed by unchecking the checkbox in the upper right corner of the
corresponding field:
Note that only the first 128 bits of the pool/keys are displayed (not the entire contents).
You can create FAT (whether it will be FAT12, FAT16, or FAT32, is automatically determined from
the number of clusters) or NTFS volumes (however, NTFS volumes can only be created by users
with administrator privileges). Mounted TrueCrypt volumes can be reformatted as FAT12, FAT16,
FAT32, or NTFS anytime. They behave as standard disk devices so you can right-click the drive
letter of the mounted TrueCrypt volume (for example in the ‘
Computer
’ or ‘
My Computer
’ list) and
select ‘Format’.
For more information about creating TrueCrypt volumes, see also the section
Hidden Volume
.
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