Well, if used correctly, it is still secure.
Do you know how much it annoys when your PC crashed every 2 minutes while trying to edit a video? Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it does very often.
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TrueCrypt 7a and below, is safe and stable. It's proven to be absolutely unbreakable, so why would anyone settle for VeraCrypt when it crashes your system? Clearly there are differences under the hood between TC/VC, what else is VC failing to do that TC did well I wonder...
You shouldn't have to trick your computer in to working correctly or sacrifice performance to an inferior software. I stuck around for a few months in the hopes for a fix but it isn't happening.
Last edit: Donal David 2020-03-25
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I've looked through the Veracrypt changelog and I think there were some security issues with TrueCrypt, but I could be wrong. I suppose someone needs to have a functional system, and crashing every 2 minutes definitely is not good.
@darkx, Every 2 minutes? wow. I would probably do a "chkdsk /f /r /v /x" just to see if there are some physical hard drive errors, and would turn off disk caching in Windows so that I not lose data. Also, I would go into Device Manager and right-click on every single item and search Windows Update for an updated driver.
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Did you notice a performance increase when using encrypted SSD drive vs encrypted hard drive? much performance gain? Also, maybe it's a setting in the driver configuration of Veracrypt that could be causing problems with your SSD. But I'm guessing.
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I did never have an HDD. The new SSD boots a bit faster, but in normal use it doesn't make a difference between encrypted/unencrypted or new/old drive.
Is there any way to check the driver configuration?
Last edit: darkx 2020-03-25
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I have the same problem as original poster.
For me it was playing CounterStrikeGlobalOffensive on both encrypted Win7 and Win10, except while on Win7 I could play for 10h without issues, on Win10 around 3h mark the system would freeze, while I could still hear game sounds. 16GB RAM.
I don't think TrueCrypt system encryption wouldn't be affected by Win10's schenanigans, that cause that issue.
Really hoping for a resolution to that problem, until then I'm staying with Win7 :-)
Last edit: Flaming Hazard 2020-04-16
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We need a fix for Veracrypt under Windows 10.
In the meantime, I found a workaround.
The problem occurs in low-memory conditions when using pagefile.sys.
I changed the pagefile location from the windows encypted partition to a non-ecnrypted partition (I created a very small NTFS partition on the same disk).
To be secure, Windows can clear the pagefile at shtudown (registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown)
No more Freeze !
👍
1
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Awesome job etienne. The solution I had just reduced the crashes significantly and didnt chrash the proposed test, may it be random or have a reason. BTW I have a second 32 GB machine with pagefile off. This also never crashed. So it is a paging problem. Thank you for sharing.
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According to the Microsoft document at the link below, the OS will overwrite the page file several times. However, this assumes you are using a mechanical hard drive and no reallocated sectors occur during the usage of the page file. SSDs also have the security issue of wear leveling.
Normally unused sectors are set to 00000000.... so the ssd is able to rewrite it faster. However I dont know if this is a background process, means when you turn of the computer and shut down power the process cant finish reliably (?)
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As others have suggested, more RAM = less crashes.
After swapping out 8GB (2x4GB) for 32GB (2x16GB), I've had my first crash-free 24hrs and counting since using VC, and that's with me pushing it beyond what would normally have caused it to hang.
So far so good.
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FYI: I have run VC on Win10 since May 2019 without issues to this day on an Acer TC 885 desktop and laptop and I am still running 1.23-hotfix-2 64 bit. Currently desktop has 32GB RAM when I first installed it, it had 8 GB, and laptop has 11GB RAM. My prior posts detail all my experiences with it including running a mix of VC and TC whole disk encrypted disks, and 2 TC disks formatted in 2004-6 that I use TC for to read. I was also a user of TC from 1 in 2004 until 7.1a. Good luck.
Last edit: Robert iXj Smith 2020-04-26
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Granted, the trigger is different (power source change) but the symptoms are similar and both appear to be some kind of weird driver/firmward conflict issue. Both involve NVMe. I wonder if they could be related.
I'm pretty sure my issue appeared after a Windows OS update too. 1903 would have been right about the time that this issue started happening for me.
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I've seen Windows come in and out of "consciousness"/responsiveness when doing my own tests, and then finally freezing, with Veracrypt 1.24U6 installed. But I also have my disk drive policy set to not write-cache. I think what might happen is, because of the slow responsiveness of the system, calls get piled up and then maybe some become invalid, and it becomes a huge mess that doesn't quite get resolved. But I'm guessing.
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I just encrypted my Windows 10 (1909) system and it did a hard freeze after a couple of minutes. I then pressed the power button and then it worked for about an hour before another hard freeze. I disabled pagefile so I'll see if this helps. I'm just surfing the net with Chrome. I don't have malwarebytes as I'm using Windows defender. I hope there is a solution as I don't want to have to buy bitlocker.
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Wow, you'd go all the way back to Truecrypt?
Well, if used correctly, it is still secure.
Do you know how much it annoys when your PC crashed every 2 minutes while trying to edit a video? Sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it does very often.
TrueCrypt 7a and below, is safe and stable. It's proven to be absolutely unbreakable, so why would anyone settle for VeraCrypt when it crashes your system? Clearly there are differences under the hood between TC/VC, what else is VC failing to do that TC did well I wonder...
You shouldn't have to trick your computer in to working correctly or sacrifice performance to an inferior software. I stuck around for a few months in the hopes for a fix but it isn't happening.
Last edit: Donal David 2020-03-25
Hello Thanks Donal. Is Tcr 7a still functional on Win 10. Havent tried yet. If I rember right it failed with updates.
Last edit: Kolja 2020-03-25
I've looked through the Veracrypt changelog and I think there were some security issues with TrueCrypt, but I could be wrong. I suppose someone needs to have a functional system, and crashing every 2 minutes definitely is not good.
@darkx, Every 2 minutes? wow. I would probably do a "chkdsk /f /r /v /x" just to see if there are some physical hard drive errors, and would turn off disk caching in Windows so that I not lose data. Also, I would go into Device Manager and right-click on every single item and search Windows Update for an updated driver.
Well it really depends. Sometimes, I can work/play for 8 hours without any freeze. And sometimes, it freezes every few minutes.
I already changed to a newer SSD (had a 250gb crucial before, now a 500 samsung evo) by decrypting, using macrium reflect and encrypting again.
Did you notice a performance increase when using encrypted SSD drive vs encrypted hard drive? much performance gain? Also, maybe it's a setting in the driver configuration of Veracrypt that could be causing problems with your SSD. But I'm guessing.
I did never have an HDD. The new SSD boots a bit faster, but in normal use it doesn't make a difference between encrypted/unencrypted or new/old drive.
Is there any way to check the driver configuration?
Last edit: darkx 2020-03-25
I have the same problem as original poster.
For me it was playing CounterStrikeGlobalOffensive on both encrypted Win7 and Win10, except while on Win7 I could play for 10h without issues, on Win10 around 3h mark the system would freeze, while I could still hear game sounds. 16GB RAM.
I don't think TrueCrypt system encryption wouldn't be affected by Win10's schenanigans, that cause that issue.
Really hoping for a resolution to that problem, until then I'm staying with Win7 :-)
Last edit: Flaming Hazard 2020-04-16
We need a fix for Veracrypt under Windows 10.
In the meantime, I found a workaround.
The problem occurs in low-memory conditions when using pagefile.sys.
I changed the pagefile location from the windows encypted partition to a non-ecnrypted partition (I created a very small NTFS partition on the same disk).
To be secure, Windows can clear the pagefile at shtudown (registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown)
No more Freeze !
Awesome job etienne. The solution I had just reduced the crashes significantly and didnt chrash the proposed test, may it be random or have a reason. BTW I have a second 32 GB machine with pagefile off. This also never crashed. So it is a paging problem. Thank you for sharing.
But "cleaning" does not mean "wiping", right? So the keys could still be on the drive?
At shutdown, the system will clear pagefile.sys, overwriting it with zeros.
It is almost impossible to recover data from the pagefile.
Last edit: Enigma2Illusion 2020-04-16
According to the Microsoft document at the link below, the OS will overwrite the page file several times. However, this assumes you are using a mechanical hard drive and no reallocated sectors occur during the usage of the page file. SSDs also have the security issue of wear leveling.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/security-policy-settings/shutdown-clear-virtual-memory-pagefile
https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Wear-Leveling.html
https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Reallocated%20Sectors.html
Normally unused sectors are set to 00000000.... so the ssd is able to rewrite it faster. However I dont know if this is a background process, means when you turn of the computer and shut down power the process cant finish reliably (?)
I upgraded to 16 GB RAM now. Almost no crashes any more.
You can turn of the pagefile, but may run out of memory some of the time. However 16 GB is plenty already.
I think you all should post which Veracrypt version you have installed. I think it's more than a windows 1903 thing.
As others have suggested, more RAM = less crashes.
After swapping out 8GB (2x4GB) for 32GB (2x16GB), I've had my first crash-free 24hrs and counting since using VC, and that's with me pushing it beyond what would normally have caused it to hang.
So far so good.
FYI: I have run VC on Win10 since May 2019 without issues to this day on an Acer TC 885 desktop and laptop and I am still running 1.23-hotfix-2 64 bit. Currently desktop has 32GB RAM when I first installed it, it had 8 GB, and laptop has 11GB RAM. My prior posts detail all my experiences with it including running a mix of VC and TC whole disk encrypted disks, and 2 TC disks formatted in 2004-6 that I use TC for to read. I was also a user of TC from 1 in 2004 until 7.1a. Good luck.
Last edit: Robert iXj Smith 2020-04-26
Interesting ... the problem described in this thread seems to line up a lot with the symptoms I outlined in this unanswered thread:
https://sourceforge.net/p/veracrypt/discussion/technical/thread/fc589d0229/
Granted, the trigger is different (power source change) but the symptoms are similar and both appear to be some kind of weird driver/firmward conflict issue. Both involve NVMe. I wonder if they could be related.
I'm pretty sure my issue appeared after a Windows OS update too. 1903 would have been right about the time that this issue started happening for me.
I've seen Windows come in and out of "consciousness"/responsiveness when doing my own tests, and then finally freezing, with Veracrypt 1.24U6 installed. But I also have my disk drive policy set to not write-cache. I think what might happen is, because of the slow responsiveness of the system, calls get piled up and then maybe some become invalid, and it becomes a huge mess that doesn't quite get resolved. But I'm guessing.
Yeah, that lines up very much with my symptoms.
I just encrypted my Windows 10 (1909) system and it did a hard freeze after a couple of minutes. I then pressed the power button and then it worked for about an hour before another hard freeze. I disabled pagefile so I'll see if this helps. I'm just surfing the net with Chrome. I don't have malwarebytes as I'm using Windows defender. I hope there is a solution as I don't want to have to buy bitlocker.
The solution is more RAM. I went from 8 to 32GB and have had 2 crashes in the last few weeks, possibly unrelated to VC.