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[Woj]

Thanks for reply!

In fact my problem is even more interesting. At home I have a laptop running 24/7. In order to keep it from overheating I removed internal hard drive from it. It is now booting windows from external usb drive.

I encrypted the hard drive with BCVE and it is working perfect.

An interesting question woud be is it possible to boot BCVE from cd (as described before) - so that it would access my external USB hard drive.

What I can tell you is that one product from your competition is able to boot  from cd encrypted system that resides on hard drive - but NOT when the hard drive is external...

Cheers!

[Jetico]

It is possible, but not so easy.

First - it will require slightly modified boot code used by
BestCrypt Volume Encryption (BCVE).

Second - BCVE protects its own MBR code from accidental overwriting.
So if you try to place original MBR code to 0th disk sector where
encrypted boot volume is, BCVE will overwrite only partition table
in the MBR, but not BCVE MBR code.

More careful analysis is required, but at the moment it seems
that software solution for both obstacles is possible. I would
recommend to send e-mail request to Jetico support. It is possible
that the suggestion will be implemented.

[Woj]

Hi!

I was wandering is it easily possible to do something like this:

1. fully encrypt hard drive with boot authentication
2. move the mbr from the hard drive to let's say a bootable cd
3. restore original mbr on hard drive
4. boot the system from cd in order to access the encrypted data

maybe it could be done using grub? the problem is one would have to install linux for that..

actually the idea came from some website

1. install clean system on partition
2. make a copy of raw hard disk data containing the system
3. encrypt it
4. install hidden partition
5. restore unencypted system - but leaving the hidden part

this way with boot normally into "fake" system and from cd into hidden part.

but this would be next step. first i would be interested is it possible to actually have acces to encrypted partition with boot authentication for cd?

[Jetico]

It is possible to use BCVE in dual-boot configuration with same or
other Windows versions supported by the software. As for using it
with Linux, it is difficult to guarantee that it will work
for all possible configurations, probably the following
considerations and experience will be of use to you.

When you encrypt Windows system partition, BCVE replaces current code
in Master Boot Record (i.e. MBR - 0th sector on physical disk) by its
own code.

When computer starts booting, BCVE code from the MBR runs first, then
it calls code written earlier in the MBR sector.

Earlier we run tests in the following configuration:

1. Partition 0 - Windows XP;
2. Partition 1 - Fedora Core 6.

We installed BCVE on Windows XP Partition 0 and encrypted
the Partition 0.

In our test, when we boot computer, BCVE code from MBR starts first
and asks to enter boot-time password.

Then Fedora's GRUB starts and allows choosing between booting Linux or
"Other" (i.e. Windows XP). Both operating system could be loaded without
problems.

If you decide to run BCVE in your configuration, please do not forget
to create Rescue bootable floppy or CD disk. Even if something gets
wrong, you will be able to decrypt Windows boot partition using the
disk.

[Ka31]

Hi,

Is Bestcrypt 8 compatible with dual boot Linux systems? (In particular lilo/grub, with the Windows boot partition encrypted with Volume Encryption?).