Can Acronis see TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drives?
I've used Acronis in the past when I use Windows XP. Before I purchase a recent version I need to know if Acronis will see and backup to a mounted encrypted drive.
Here's the scenario: I'm in Windows 7 64 bit and want to backup certain files to a flash drive that is encrypted with TrueCrypt. So the encrypted flash drive needs to be first mounted and becomes visible to the system as a mounted drive with a drive letter. The reason I ask is because I know that both Paragon backup and Macrium reflect cannot see and therefore cannot backup to a mounted drive. I need to know if Acronis can see a mounted drive before I buy it.
Does anyone know or use Acronis this way?
Thank you.
(I do backup to USB external drives. This would be in addition to these regular backups).
Thank you for the detailed response and info.
With a flash drive that might be accidentally lost I need the encryption to be very solid. Especially with so many password breakers available on the internet. I have used TrueCrypt for years and know it is almost impossible to break. Don't know how secure ATI's password protection is.
BTW, I could not access http://forum.acronis.com/forum/13954. Access denied.
Jeff,
AES 256bit encryption of the file archive is as robust as it can be.
Using the ASZ and a password to protect it can be used in *addition* to the archive file encryption. I agree it is possible that the ASZ password protection is not as strong, but use in conjunction with 256bit AES encryption...
Finally, you could make your USB bootable with Acronis Image running on it, so that if you have to access the files on it, you can boot on the flash drive and restore the files to access them.
As far as I can tell in a quick test, TI 2011 (build 6696) can back up to a TrueCrypt encrypted flash drive. Note that I tested with a single partition encrypted on the flash drive and not the entire drive.
I downloaded the test version of Acronis 11 and it does see the mounted encrypted drive and backup to it.
Now I need to see if I get a discount for owning Seagate DiscWizard which is made by Acronis.
Jeff
Jeff,
Try to do a restore as well.
I plan to. Thanks.
(Do you know something I should know?)
I imagine that restoring a backup stored on a TrueCrypt mounted disk...
- should work from ATI running in Windows if this is a backup that doesn't require a reboot,
- would not work from ATI running in Windows if this is a disk and partition backup of the running system (because ATI has to reboot),
- will not work from ATI running in the recovery CD, because it will not be able to access the backup.
That is not a problem. I have other backups on external drives. This is just for some data files (photos, etc.) I want to have a redundant backup for should the house go up in flames with both my PC and my backup external drives in them.
I am a newcomer to Acronis Home, as of last night. I was curious about the TrueCrypt and EFS issues so I tested it. Last night I did a full backup of my Windows 7 Ultimate laptop (2 partitions). I have one folder tree encrypted with EFS and a TrueCrypt container file holding another folder tree.
This morning I was able to look at EFS encrypted files in the backup set with no problem. I was also able to restore the TC container file to a different location, then mount it like any other TC container.
One thing I did not like is minor: When I chose "restore to a different location," I had to go outside of the program to create a new location. Acronis did not give the option: "Destination folder does not exist. Create new folder?" that so many programs would do in this circumstance.
Haha, in that case Far Manager creates folder automatically. Maybe Acronis guys need to steal that idea?
Can Acronis see TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drives?
That's double question.
Can Acronis write it's backups/archives on TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drive?
YES
Can Acronis backup TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drive as a Disk?
NO
In that case Acronis CANNOT SEE TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drives.
Try to backup TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drive as a File Backup.
And that will have it's side effects with open files (protected from READING). PAIN!!!
1. Can you explain what you mean by:
"Try to backup TrueCrypt mounted encrypted drive as a File Backup.
And that will have it's side effects with open files (protected from READING). PAIN!!!"
What problems arise?
2. If you do a file backup of an unmounted TrueCrypt volume, is there a problem?
Thanks.