How do you write to the TrueCrypt outer volume?

Question

How do I write to the outer volume of a TrueCrypt partition, without affecting the hidden partition inside it?

David Schwartz · Answer 1 · 2012-01-29 00:31:16Z

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You must mount the outer volume with hidden volume protection enabled.

answered Jan 29 at 0:31

	Er, that doesn't prevent corruption of the outer volume though; it only prevents corruption of the inner volume. It's not really made for doing this, is it? It looks more like last-resort protection to me. – Mehrdad Jan 29 at 0:32
	What would corrupt the outer volume that it needs protection against? – David Schwartz Jan 29 at 0:32
	Well, after TrueCrypt denies NTFS write access to a part of free space (which contains the hidden volume), it write-protects the entire outer volume. This means the volume will likely be in an inconsistent state (since e.g. the MFT will have been updated, whereas the file contents and the journal might not have been). Wouldn't this corrupt the outer volume? – Mehrdad Jan 29 at 0:41
	It will corrupt it in the sense that you can't modify it anymore. It will still be perfectly readable. You really aren't supposed to modify the outer volume -- it's purpose is to serve as a decoy. – David Schwartz Jan 29 at 0:56
	Huh? "You really aren't supposed to modify the outer volume -- its purpose is to serve as a decoy." --> "You should use the decoy operating system as frequently as you use your computer. Ideally, you should use it for all activities that do not involve sensitive data."...? – Mehrdad Jan 29 at 0:58

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