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I am using an encrypted truecrypt volume, operating out of word files stored on there.

I would like to know what would happen if the computer crashes while the encrypted volume is mounted? Will it be the same as if I were just using my normal drive and perhaps some data will be lost, or will not dismounting the encrypted volume damage it somehow?

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  • when do crashes cause hard drive corruption..I suppose some do some don't.. and what kind of crash do you mean? a car crash? I suppose you mean turning it off instead of shutting down properly..(I doubt the crash itself causes any problem.). Perhaps turning it off like that is a problem if done lots of times. In practice I don't think i've really encountered problems from that personally.. 'cos it's rare, Though i've heard of something along the lines of windows not loading from that. I suppose any logical corruption or physical problem on the drive -could- cross onto the big truecrypt file.
    – barlop
    Nov 18, 2011 at 7:58
  • @barlop yes I mean a car crash :\ context man, context. I am essentially wondering if the container can become corrupted if not dismounted properly.
    – Jim Seed
    Nov 18, 2011 at 8:17
  • I meant a car crash while on your laptop so not good for the hard drive in there , or a desktop computer moved around while it's on(those ones aren't meant to be moved), so possible physical damage to the hard drive, or age, crashes can occur from physical damage that lead to logical issues, files affected. I doubt not dismounting the container would be a problem if the comp was suddenly turned off. It might be more like opening a file on the hard drive.
    – barlop
    Nov 18, 2011 at 9:22
  • A worst case would be you're writing a file and turn the computer off,I suppose the file might get corrupt, but probably not the truecrypt file.You could run some tests. Try pulling the power while it's open and while writing. If you have a computer you don't like.
    – barlop
    Nov 18, 2011 at 9:23

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In alot of senses it will be exactly like as if it were a normal drive, so you could lose unsaved data and the file system could become corrupted. It can be kind of annoying if an encrypted file system is corrupt and won't mount anymore, but I if I'm not mistaking truecrypt offers some option to decrypt data without mounting it so you can get on it with traditional tools to recover data.

I cannot really give you good references here, but that is from my memory of how truecrypt works. I wouldn't be surprised if the truecrypt documentation talks about this.

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