So I have a question. Let's say I have an external hard drive that's being used to store certain important files that I don't want people accessing if I lost the drive. I understand TrueCrypt can create such an encrypted drive and even hide said files but let's take this further. What if said drive is to be networked? Does TrueCrypt allow an encrypted drive to be shared on a network once its been mounted? Or will it be read only? I haven't had the chance to test this out but maybe some networking gurus on here have a better suggestion. I want the external drive encrypted and be read/written onto by other machines.


Also as a note, the external drive will be plugged into an XP machine at minimum or possibly on a Windows 7 machine. Are there better encryption programs that would work instead of TrueCrypt? I know Bit-Locker is found in some variants of Windows 8 but I'm not entirely sure the difference between it and TrueCrypt. Any info will be gladly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Bitlocker To-Go requires windows 7 ultimate or Windows 8 Pro but IDK the answer to your question about truecrypt

 

Not sure either, but there are some external drives sold with encryption built in.

 

i *believe* trucrypt encrypts/decrypts at the client, not the source (although they are one in the same on a one machine install).

You would need to mount the volume on each networked machine separately, using the password on each machine.

 

I am wrong...

see this link:

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=sharing-over-network

 

I saw that on my quick research but I want to use my existing external already. Also do you know how they work? Do you need to install the software on a computer to allow it access to the drive Like TrueCrypt or is there more to it?


So from that link the encrypted drive can be networked once mounted which is what I want. It also talks about the data being sniffed in one method but I don't need it to be that insanely secure. Just more concerned about the drive "accidentally" being swiped. Will test this out in the next few days just been busy with things.

 

Right, as the data is accessed from client machines, it is not encrypted over the network. Only the container volume when NOT mounted.

I would test mounting it via network, then simply unplug the ext drive and plug it into a different machine and see if the data is accessible.