Version Information

Additional Security Requirements and Precautions 
In addition to the requirements and precautions described in this chapter (
Security Requirements 
and Precautions
), you must follow and keep in mind the security requirements, precautions, and 
limitations listed in the following chapters and sections: 
•
How to Back Up Securely 
•
Limitations 
•
Security Model 
•
Security Requirements and Precautions Pertaining to Hidden Volumes
 
•
Plausible Deniability
 
See also: 
Digital Signatures
 

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96 
How to Back Up Securely 
Due to hardware or software errors/malfunctions, files stored on a TrueCrypt volume may become 
corrupted. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you backup all your important files regularly 
(this, of course, applies to any important data, not just to encrypted data stored on TrueCrypt 
volumes).
Non-System Volumes 
To back up a non-system TrueCrypt volume securely, it is recommended to follow these steps: 
1. Create a new TrueCrypt volume using the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard (do not 
enable the 
Quick Format
option or the 
Dynamic
option). It will be your 
backup
volume so its 
size should match (or be greater than) the size of your 
main
volume.
If the 
main
volume is a hidden TrueCrypt volume (see the section 
Hidden Volume
), the 
backup
volume must be a hidden TrueCrypt volume too. Before you create the hidden 
backup
volume, you must create a new host (outer) volume for it without enabling the 
Quick 
Format 
option. In addition, especially if the 
backup
volume is file-hosted, the hidden 
backup
volume should occupy only a very small portion of the container and the outer volume 
should be almost completely filled with files (otherwise, the plausible deniability of the 
hidden volume might be adversely affected). 
2. Mount the newly created 
backup
volume. 
3. Mount the 
main
volume. 
4. Copy all files from the mounted 
main
volume directly to the mounted 
backup
volume.