DiskCryptor download is a tiny 750Kb, after installing it you will need to reboot the computer, you might notice that its 64bit drivers come signed by the ReactOS foundation a non for profit organization assisting open source projects not able to acquire an expensive signing certificate to distribute Windows 64bit drivers. Encrypting my Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit OS, with a fairly powerful Intel i5 2200Hz (quad core) absorbed very low CPU, a steady 7% of the available resources, it took me 20 hours to encrypt a 1TB hard drive, it would have been considerably quicker using just the AES algorithm instead of the cascade algorithm I selected. DiskCryptor encryption keyfile Truecrypt will ask you to enter your password after rebooting your computer before encrypting your operating system, DiskCryptor will not, it assumes you entered the passphrase correctly twice as asked and did not make any mistake. When using special signs in your password be aware that in booting up your computer the keyboard has a US layout that will not correspond with a non US keyboard, I searched for a photograph of US keyboard layout on the Internet to make sure there would be no mistakes about what keys to pres. Unlike Truecrypt, DiskCryptor bootloader is highly configurable, I have my own (Ascii) logo at logon and I instructed DiskCryptor to time out after 30 seconds of inactivity at which point the computer reboots, other options like halt and exit to BIOS are possible.
Aug 2, 2014 - DiskCryptor - fully open solution to encrypt all partitions, including system. It supports single platform (Windows only) and has no portable. DiskCryptor is a great open source tool which can encrypt data stored on physical hard drives, USB sticks, memory cards and virtually any device that is able to be mounted onto a Windows PC.
Using DiskCryptor keyfile for full disk encryption is something possible and not supported by Truecrypt, a keyfile will thwart dictionary attacks on your passphrase but this keyfile can not consist of anything it has to be a 64 byte file generated by DiskCryptor. Windows 7 FDE specific problem Unlike Vista, XP and lower Windows versions, when you use a whole disk encryption product on Windows 7, or installing a dual boot, you will notice that Windows 7 automatically creates a 100MB system reserved partition, 24MB contains actual data the rest is there for future use like Bitlocker or system restore, this partition is hidden by Windows and only visible using a live CD or through DiskCryptor or Truecrypt interface. Windows 7 100MB hidden system partition Windows 7 system reserved partition contains some necessary boot files, do not attempt to encrypt Windows 7 system reserved partition like I did because the computer will not boot! There are hacks around to merge that partition with the main Windows 7 operating system, I managed to do it partioning the hard disk with PartedMagic before installing Windows 7 and ignoring Windows installation DVD asking me to create the system reserved partition, everything worked fine until I fully encrypted Windows 7 without the system reserved space and the computer refused to boot. If you would like to use whole disk encryption in Windows 7 there is no choice but to give in and allow Windows to create the unencrypted 100MB system partition, this shouldn’t be a problem regarding data leakage, you can view the files it contains with a live CD, I managed to see a bootsect.bak file, bootmgr, and System Volume Information folder and a few others with no obvious danger. Truecrypt vs DiskCryptor comparison table. DiskCryptor full disk encryption A computer with no operating system and a wiped hard disk will look very suspicious, claims that it was wiped the day before would be held with incredulity but hard to prove it didn’t happen.
Even better, I came across a thread in DiskCryptor forums to have a dual OS system where one of the Windows OS will only boot with the USB thumbdrive plugged in and when not present the other OS will boot, this set up makes one of the partitions look like random data and not like 2 operating systems on one hard disk. Conclusion Truecrypt vs Diskcryptor If you have a tablet or netbook without a CD-drive go for DiskCryptor because Truecrypt forces you to burn a recovery CD (there is a work around using CD-drive virtualization software, i.e. Alcohol 120% or using the command line /noisocheck). If you would like to be able to open encrypted external devices using Linux or MAC go for Truecrypt as DiskCryptor is a Windows only program, if you want to create single encrypted containers go for Truecrypt as DiskCryptor can’t do that. Something in which Truecrypt beats DiskCryptor is in documentation, Truecrypt manual is very complete and DiskCryptor consists of an incomplete online Wiki, DiskCryptor can make up for this showing off the ‘Blue Screen’ feature, a way to quickly crash your fully encrypted computer allowing you to set the quick emergency shutdown to any hotkey shortcut you like. Security wise, both Truecrypt and DiskCryptor have the same credentials with their source code open to scrutiny and none of them reviewed by any qualified cryptographer, overall, DiskCryptor has more configuration features than Truecrypt, and Truecrypt is better at cross platform compatibility. Truecrypt: DiskCryptor.
I have been using ever since I discovered the encryption software years ago to protect data from being accessed by third parties. It is a great open source software that has functionality to create encrypted data containers or partitions, including the system partition the operating system is installed on.
Update: DiskCryptor has not been updated in a while and while that does not mean that it does not work anymore at all, it is certainly something that users and administrators need to be aware of. As one user pointed out recently in the comments, DiskCryptor is not compatible with GUID Boot partitions with UEFI. I suggest you check out instead. End is, as the name implies, another encryption software that offers functionality to encrypt disk partitions. That's a disadvantage compared to TrueCrypt and not the only difference between the two applications.
TrueCrypt for instance is available for Windows, Mac and Linux, while DiskCryptor only for Windows. The software furthermore supports a portable mode which DiskCryptor does not as well. As far as the advantages of DiskCryptor go, it supports keyfiles for full disk encryption and can place bootloaders on external devices like USB Flash drives. Another interesting fact about DiskCryptor is that partition backups only take up the data space and not the space of the partition's overall storage capacity.
If you backup a 1 Terabyte drive that is encrypted with TrueCrypt, you end up with a 1 Terabyte backup. With DiskCryptor, you'd end up with a backup that is only as large as the data that is stored on the partition. This reduces the time it takes to create the backup and the storage requirements. How to encrypt partitions with DiskCryptor It is actually very easy to encrypt a partition with the disk encryption software. The program needs to be installed on your system, and requires administrative privileges to run. It will load the list of connected hard drives and partitions, indicating the system partition and boot partition on the screen as well.
First thing that you may want to do is click on Tools Benchmark to benchmark all available encryption algorithms. This is important as it directly correlates to the time it takes to encrypt the selected partition. The program supports AES hardware acceleration and cascading algorithms. Please note that the actual encryption process is slower than the speed outlined in the benchmark as you have to factor in disk reads and writes, whereas the benchmark does not. Once you have done that, it is time to select a partition that you want to encrypt. This is done with a click on the selected partition and the selection of encrypt on the right sidebar menu. Select the algorithm that you want to use, and whether you want to use the program's Disk Wipe feature.
The disk wipe feature does not erase unused or used space. What it does is the following: What 'Wipe Mode' does, is that it prevents possibility to recover data by examining residual magnetic energy, which can be done on a specialist equipment. When in 'Wipe Mode', DiskCryptor reads each sector's data, wipes the sector, and then writes the encrypted data back to it. So any data that was there before, including deleted files, will still be there when the encrypted volume is later mounted.
You are then asked to enter a password, select a keyboard layout and optionally select to use a keyfile as well. The program displays a password rating right on the screen.
It is recommended to select a secure password consisting of numbers, upper and lower case letters and special characters. Make sure you select the right keyboard layout as you may otherwise run into troubles when you enter the password to mount the encrypted drive. The program starts the encryption of the drive afterwards. This can take a long time depending on the size of the drive and its speed.
It took about 40 minutes to encrypt the main 120 Gigabyte drive of the test system. If you have encrypted the operating system partition, you are asked to enter the password on boot. Windows will only boot if you enter the correct password. What I recommend you to do in addition is to backup the headers of all partitions that you have encrypted. The developers of DiskCryptor furthermore recommend to create a LiveCD with DiskCryptor included for emergencies.