Protect CD Contents by Encrypting with TrueCrypt

If you ask anyone that knows about encryption, they would say that TrueCrypt is one the best out there. I have an old friend who used to be in the “scene” that was involved in warez and he uses TrueCrypt to protect the sensitivedata on his computer in case one day the authorities decides to bust in to his house. If one follows the guide on using a complex passphrase, even FBI hackers fail to crack TrueCrypt using the dictionary attack.One good thing about TrueCrypt is the portability where I can use it to by encrypting it and then save both the TrueCrypt Volume and the to a CD or DVD. The data in the disc will be which can be easily decrypted to access the files any time by just running TrueCrypt and mounting the volume with the correct password. The decryption is done instantly (on the fly) so you can immediately access your files upon entering the correct password. There are some such as CD-Lock and GiliSoft Secure Disc Creator that encrypts disc but I will show you how you can do that for free with TrueCrypt.

Follow This Steps

1. Download the latest version of TrueCrypt. Currently the latest version is 7.0a.

2. Run the TrueCrypt (TrueCrypt Setup 7.0a.exe). select Extract.

3. Run TrueCrypt.exe and click on Create Volume button.

4. Select “Create an encrypted container” and click Next.

5. You are asked to either select “Standard” or “Hidden” TrueCrypt volume. This feature is very interesting and I hope I am able to explain in an easier way to understand.

The Standard volume let’s you create just one encrypted space. Let’s say you’re being threatened to reveal the password or something bad is going to happen to you. Revealing the password will decrypt all the encrypted files and the person who threatened you get all the files.

As for Hidden volume, it creates another encrypted volume on the existing encrypted space with another password. So if you gave the first password, the hidden volume will still stay hidden and not be revealed. Only if you mount the volume using the hidden volume password, then only the hidden volume will be mounted.

As a simple test, we’ll select the “Standard TrueCrypt volume” and click Next.

6. Now you’re asked to specify where should the TrueCrypt volume be saved to. Click the Select File button and set a name for example, dummy, and click Next.

7. There are a bunch of encryption algorithms to choose. Let’s leave it as default and click Next.

8. A normal CD have 650-700MB in space and DVD is 4.7GB. If you’re going to create an encrypted CD, let’s create the volume size as 600MB and click Next.

9. Enter a password. Make sure you use a good password and remember it. If you lose the password, you are not going to get back the encrypted files.

10. Click the Format button to format the volume and wait for a few seconds. Click Exit when the volume is created.

11. Now you’re back at the TrueCrypt main interface. Click on any drive letter that is on the program, and click the Select File button. Select dummy file and then click the Mount button. Enter the password that you’ve specified in step 9.

12. Go to My Computer and you will see a new drive letter. Alternatively you can also double click on the drive that is mounted at TrueCrypt to directly open the drive. That is the encrypted volume (space) which is now decrypted. Copy the files that you want to encrypt to the drive.

13. Once you have finished copying the files to the mounted volume, to dismount, simply click on the drive at TrueCrypt to make sure that it’s highlight and then click the Dismount button. Click Exit to close TrueCrypt.

14. To put it on a CD, just burn the 4 TrueCrypt files (TrueCrypt.exe, TrueCrypt Format.exe, truecrypt.sys, truecrypt-x64.sys) and dummy file to the disc.

To access the encrypted files in future, insert the CD to your , run TrueCrypt.exe and follow step 11 to mount the TrueCrypt volume. The files will be read-only and cannot be modified since it is written on a disc.

Here is how TrueCrypt works in summary:

1. Create volume (make an encrypted space): Refer step 3 to 10
2. Mount volume (map the encrypted space to a drive letter) Refer step 11
3. Copy files to Volume (Move any files to the mapped drive that you want to encrypt) Refer step 12
4. Dismount Volume (unmap encrypted drive). Refer step 13