HD video editing system with Truecrypt

Question

I'm looking to do hi-def video editing and transcoding on an unencrypted standard partition, with Truecrypt on the system partition for sensitive data. I'm aiming to keep certain data private but still have performance where needed.

Goals:

• Maximum, unimpacted, performance possible for hi-def video editing, encryption of video not required
• Encrypt system partition, using Truecrypt, for web/email privacy, etc. in the event of loss

In other words I want to selectively encrypt the hard drive - i.e. make the system partition encrypted but not impact the original maximum performance that would be available to me for hi-def/HD video editing.

The thinking is to use an unencrypted partition for the video and set up video applications to point at that. Assuming that they would use that partition only for their workspace and not the encrypted system partition, then I should expect to not get any performance hit. Would I be correct?

I guess it might depend on the application, if that app is hard-wired to use the system partition always for temporary storage during editing and transcoding, or if it has to be installed on the C: system partition always. So some real data on how various apps behave in the respect would be useful, e.g. Adobe, Cyberlink, Nero etc. etc.

I have a Intel i7 Quad-core (8 threads) 1.6Ghz (up to 2.8Ghz turbo-boost) 4Gb, 7200rpm SATA, nvidia HP laptop.

I've read the excellent posting about the general performance impact of truecrypt but the benchmarks weren't specific enough for my needs where I'm dealing with HD-video and using a non-encrypted partition to maintain max performance.

Answer 1

You may want to use this method. Basically you would hide your OS. If you would work on the unencrypted partition (or on an external drive, whatever), there wont be any drawback from using truecrypt. Basically the performance drawback is not much if you use a middle rated encryption. Don't know about your job where you would need such technology. (You can simply add a HDD password using your BIOS. Thats only possible to crack if the person who stole it replaces the whole electronics as far as I know.. but it may be impossible even like that.)

Answer 2

I think I'll just try out my own suggestion: to have 2 partitions: 1 for the encrypted OS and 2 for the uncrypted area to hold the video.

I have no requirement to encrypt the video so would like to think that the performance of retrieval would not be impacted during an edit section. Given that the video is for public broadcast or to be shared online anyway there is no need to encryption to hide this material. Unless of course it becomes very commercially lucrative - and for the original footage to be stolen that might harm that revenue. But in reality I'm a hobbyist film maker so that ultimate aim may not be realised :)

Regarding my job, it's not really necessary to encrypt the operating system drive, but preferable. The main reason why I would want to do this is to protect emails and any company or client sensitive work I may have in the event of loss or theft.

Having already used truecrypt I have found that to be suitable for the above aim.