A question re Truecrypt and Bitlocker

ajf · 16 Jan 2009 at 13:55

I am looking at hard disk encryption and want to know how these apps handle the following scenarios:

Hard disk is put into a new machine as the boot disk - does it still ask for encryption?
I am assuming yes.

What if the disk is put into a different machine as a secondary drive. Is it visible? Is it accessible with or without the encryption key?

TPM is not used.

Thanks
Andrew

eXor · 16 Jan 2009 at 16:10

ajf said:
Hard disk is put into a new machine as the boot disk - does it still ask for encryption?
I am assuming yes.

Of course. The boot code is on the disk itself. It is unaware of its surroundings.

Mattus · 16 Jan 2009 at 16:14

The entire contents of the disk is encrypted. It's technically impossible to see any of the data without the encryption key, so whatever you do with the drive will make no difference. The code to decrypt the data (but not the key!) is stored on the drive itself. Think of moving it to a different computer as like having a locked safe and moving it from one room to another.

ajf · 16 Jan 2009 at 16:24

Thankl you both for the replies.
I assumed this to be the case but wanted to be sure as the intention was to secure teh drive if it ever got stolen rather than just enryption for keeping files private on a daily basis.

Andrew