USB Flash Drive with unencrypted + encrypted partitions?
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Hi,
I'm running Windows 8.1, and I'd like to use a 32GB USB flash drive in the following way:
One small, unencrypted partition with Veracrypt portable mode files + other various public files,
and another encrypted volume that is only seen and usable through VeraCrypt.
I want to use a partition not a file container to store the encrypted volume.
I tried the Traveler's Disk tool, but that appears to make only 1 unencrypted partition and only supports making encrypted file container volumes.
I created 2 primary partitions on the USB flash drive successfully with Gparted, but both Windows and Veracrypt only see partition 1, so that path doesn't seem to work.
When I use the "VeraCrypt Volume Creation Wizard" to "Encrypt a non-system partition/drive" as a "Standard Veracrypt volume" and select the drive, it tells me: "the selected non-system device contains partitions", so I proceeded to remove all partitions and clean the drive.
I deleted the partitions in Gparted. Windows shows the drive as completely unallocated, however, VeraCrypt still shows a single partition (with no size) on the drive!
I then used MS diskpart to clean the USB drive and also to remove the drive letter (the volume showed G:).
Still, Veracrypt shows a single partition with no size (blank)!
I have a completely blank USB flash drive, but VC still sees it as having a single partition so VC won't allow me to setup encrypted partitions on the entire drive.
Please help!
Thanks,
Ed
I based my USB flash drive creation attempt on what I found on the Vera Crypt FAQ:
"Create two or more partitions on your USB flash drive. Leave the first partition non encrypted and encrypt the other partition(s). You can store VeraCrypt on the first partition in order to run it directly from the USB flash drive.Dec 23, 2016"
I just found this post from 2016:
https://github.com/veracrypt/VeraCrypt/issues/51
It appears that this FAQ recommendation doesn't actually work on Windows 7, and Windows 8.x
However, Windows 10 supposedly supports multiple partitions on USB flash drives, so maybe it would work for that OS?
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/create-multiple-partitions-usb-drive-windows-10
"To be able to work with USB drives that have multiple partitions, your PC has to be Windows 10, v1703, with the most recent version of the Windows ADK installed."