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 1 down vote favorite

Is it possible to enable TrueCrypt's pre-boot authentication with system partition not encrypted? I would like to encrypt only the other partition where I store data and I would like it to be automounted at boot time (not at Windows logon).

share|improve this question
Why don't you want to encrypt the entire drive? – cmorse Jan 3 '12 at 20:03
Does your hard drive support aes encryption? You can set a hard drive password in the BIOS and would essentially do similar. – kobaltz Jan 3 '12 at 20:08
@cmorse I do not want to encrypt the entire drive because I need can't afford the loss of performance. – rafalry Jan 30 '12 at 8:55
@rafalry - You are only talking a small performance decrease, one you will even notice, feel free to do something the stupid way though. – Ramhound Apr 3 '12 at 14:58

1 Answer

up vote 1 down vote

It is possible to automount an encrypted partition before Windows logon if you are willing to store password as plain text on your system partition. On the other hand, pre-boot auth in TrueCrypt is closely coupled with encrypting the system partition, so I'd say you cannot do what you want without modifying TrueCrypt.

If you consider going the former route, a simple one-liner such as

"C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\truecrypt.exe" /auto /volume \Device\Harddisk0\Partition3 /letter S /password "yourpasswordgoeshere" /quit /silent

would do the trick.

Also, the performance hit from encrypting the whole system is not huge with TrueCrypt, especially with latest disk and CPU technology (SSD, AES NI instructions). Even on older hardware it is tolerable and at times unnoticable.

share|improve this answer

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.