Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 3 down vote favorite

I read that among various corruption risks is the filesystem corruption, that also affects TrueCrypt volumes, like any other system.I would like to know if it is possible that a corruption in some special small region can lead to lose the entire filesystem?

share|improve this question

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Yes, there is one critical part in a TrueCrypt volume that has to be present and valid otherwise your data is lost: The Volume Header

This is the reason why TrueCrypt has the possibility to back-up this small region and save it somewehere else:

Select Tools -> Backup Volume Header

The Volume Header is really small it's - the first 512 bytes of the TrueCrypt container.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

According to the truecrypt FAQ, the cipherblock size is 16 bytes, so one bad bit will likely cause the loss of 16 bytes, but not the whole disk.

share|improve this answer
so there isn't a more critical zone (for example the root of the filesystem files information), the risk is distributed? – P5music Oct 25 '11 at 14:28
I'm sure there are. For linux-based file systems, there are numerous superblocks so corruption can be recovered from. Not sure how this works for NTFS, but I suspect its similar. – uSlackr Oct 25 '11 at 16:44

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.