First, I have encrypted a drive. The usual norm is a drive letter gets assigned to this encrypted drive. Then the drive is selected for mounting. Is it possible to hide the drive letter for the encrypted drive before it gets mounted and if yes, is it possible to mount that drive (which has no drive letter)? Of course, once mounted, there will be a drive letter.
Second, AUTO MOUNT: this is related to the first question. I have successfully encrypted the system drive. I have another drive in this PC that has not been encrypted yet which will be soon. What is the best way to have it part of the system drive where when I log in, it auto mounts this 2nd drive? Would I have to go through the normal process of encrypting a partition AND HAVE AN EXTRA DRIVE LETTER?
I guess what I am trying to get away is an extra drive letter. The system drive did not require an extra drive letter.
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With your encrypted disk/partition dismounted, use the Windows Disk Management to remove the drive letter to the disk drive. This will also prevent Windows from prompting you to format the drive.
When you add a drive to your system that Windows has not seen before, Windows will automatically assign the device the next available drive letter. This is the reason you have to manually remove the Windows assigned drive letter when you encrypt a drive/partition using Disk Management.
For mounting the encrypted non-system volumes, you have three options:
I will read those links Enigma. Can you share a quick overview of those 3 options? You did give a little bit of insight into Auto-Mount (is an all or nothing approach). Which one do you prefer?
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You will have to decide when you want the non-system encrypted volumes to mount.
System Favorites - Encrypt the non-system volumes using the same password/PIM that you enter at the bootloader screen. The volumes will be mounted when Windows boots.
Favorites - You mount the volumes or select an option when to mount. In the GUI, Favorites > Organize Favorites Volumes to see the various options.
Auto-Mount - Attempts to identify all non-system disk/partitions and mount them. Hence, the all or nothing approach.
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I ended up using System Favorites since it mounts the drive during Windows boot. The regular Favorite does not work for me since I have some applications needs to be run on Windows boot.
Thanks for that explanation. It saved me lots of time as I was playing around with this thing.
I also removed the drive letter and got that to work too. I never knew that you can mount without a drive letter. It did fail when I encrypted the drive and not the partition. When I removed the drive letter for the drive, it failed. But when I encrypted the drive on the one partition and removed the drive letter, everything was fine. Does this sound familiar to you? It is basically Drive encryption vs Partition Encryption.
Thanks
Last edit: WRVC2016 2016-02-24
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In the past, I have been successful at encrypting an external drive without any partitions existing and without the Windows drive letter existing using the Encrypt and Format (destroys existing data). I do not know why you are getting an error.
For disk encryption, you should not have any partitions existing. Only the drive partition 0 should show-up in the Select Devices. There should not be any other partitions. Example:
\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0
Can you provide specific error? Was this a Windows error or VeraCrypt error?
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When I encrypt an entire drive, I still create a partition for the entire drive and then encrypt it. Is that not the norm of encrypting an entire drive? TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt always give warnings when encrypting an entire drive without a partition.
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According to the warning without a partition, you should have a partition to avoid the possibility of Windows initializing the drive and/or prompting you to format the drive. You should not get an error for merely removing the drive letter prior to encrypting using Encrypt and Format (destroys existing data) unless you are considering the warning from VeraCrypt as an error.
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Enigma, I think that I may not have been clear. Sorry, so let me rewalk you through.
Since the system mounting works well now, that is out of the way.
As for the drive letter, I originally encrypted the entire non-system drive, without a partition. I then remove the drive letter. I was able to mount it the first time successfully. After I rebooted, I could not find the drive (Volume Device ID) in the VeraCrypt window to mount it. Of course, at that point, System Favorite also failed too.
Like you said above, I usually encrypt an entire drive with at least 1 partition. This method has never failed. It is when there is no partition like the above, I was not able to find the Device ID.
Anyway, I can't reemulate the problem so I think I will leave it here.
Thanks for your dedication.
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Thank you for clarification. I should clarify my statement that you should have been able to see in the VeraCrypt Select Device window the device without any partitions called "Harddisk 2:" as an example. I believe when you select Harddrive 2: that it shows-up in the volume path in the main GUI as:
\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0
This behavior was on Windows XP 32-bit machine so it could be newer Windows OSs no longer will show the device as you outlined in your post above when the drive letter is removed from a disk with no partitions. Unfortunately, I do not have a spare drive to test this on my Windows 7 Pro 64-bit system. Just out of curiosity, what is your Windows version and bit 32/64?
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Two questions:
First, I have encrypted a drive. The usual norm is a drive letter gets assigned to this encrypted drive. Then the drive is selected for mounting. Is it possible to hide the drive letter for the encrypted drive before it gets mounted and if yes, is it possible to mount that drive (which has no drive letter)? Of course, once mounted, there will be a drive letter.
Second, AUTO MOUNT: this is related to the first question. I have successfully encrypted the system drive. I have another drive in this PC that has not been encrypted yet which will be soon. What is the best way to have it part of the system drive where when I log in, it auto mounts this 2nd drive? Would I have to go through the normal process of encrypting a partition AND HAVE AN EXTRA DRIVE LETTER?
I guess what I am trying to get away is an extra drive letter. The system drive did not require an extra drive letter.
With your encrypted disk/partition dismounted, use the Windows Disk Management to remove the drive letter to the disk drive. This will also prevent Windows from prompting you to format the drive.
When you add a drive to your system that Windows has not seen before, Windows will automatically assign the device the next available drive letter. This is the reason you have to manually remove the Windows assigned drive letter when you encrypt a drive/partition using Disk Management.
For mounting the encrypted non-system volumes, you have three options:
https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=System%20Favorite%20Volumes
https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Favorite%20Volumes
Auto-Mount is an all or nothing approach you can read in the section of manual at the link below which is in
https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Main%20Program%20Window
I will read those links Enigma. Can you share a quick overview of those 3 options? You did give a little bit of insight into Auto-Mount (is an all or nothing approach). Which one do you prefer?
You will have to decide when you want the non-system encrypted volumes to mount.
System Favorites - Encrypt the non-system volumes using the same password/PIM that you enter at the bootloader screen. The volumes will be mounted when Windows boots.
Favorites - You mount the volumes or select an option when to mount. In the GUI, Favorites > Organize Favorites Volumes to see the various options.
Auto-Mount - Attempts to identify all non-system disk/partitions and mount them. Hence, the all or nothing approach.
I ended up using System Favorites since it mounts the drive during Windows boot. The regular Favorite does not work for me since I have some applications needs to be run on Windows boot.
Thanks for that explanation. It saved me lots of time as I was playing around with this thing.
I also removed the drive letter and got that to work too. I never knew that you can mount without a drive letter. It did fail when I encrypted the drive and not the partition. When I removed the drive letter for the drive, it failed. But when I encrypted the drive on the one partition and removed the drive letter, everything was fine. Does this sound familiar to you? It is basically Drive encryption vs Partition Encryption.
Thanks
Last edit: WRVC2016 2016-02-24
For drive encryption, not partition encryption, what type of encyption option did you select?
Encrypt In-Place (does not destory existing data) or Encrypt and Format (destroys existing data)?
"Encrypt and Format (destroys existing data)"
In the past, I have been successful at encrypting an external drive without any partitions existing and without the Windows drive letter existing using the Encrypt and Format (destroys existing data). I do not know why you are getting an error.
For disk encryption, you should not have any partitions existing. Only the drive partition 0 should show-up in the Select Devices. There should not be any other partitions. Example:
\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0
Can you provide specific error? Was this a Windows error or VeraCrypt error?
I believe it is a Window error.
When I encrypt an entire drive, I still create a partition for the entire drive and then encrypt it. Is that not the norm of encrypting an entire drive? TrueCrypt/VeraCrypt always give warnings when encrypting an entire drive without a partition.
According to the warning without a partition, you should have a partition to avoid the possibility of Windows initializing the drive and/or prompting you to format the drive. You should not get an error for merely removing the drive letter prior to encrypting using Encrypt and Format (destroys existing data) unless you are considering the warning from VeraCrypt as an error.
Enigma, I think that I may not have been clear. Sorry, so let me rewalk you through.
Since the system mounting works well now, that is out of the way.
As for the drive letter, I originally encrypted the entire non-system drive, without a partition. I then remove the drive letter. I was able to mount it the first time successfully. After I rebooted, I could not find the drive (Volume Device ID) in the VeraCrypt window to mount it. Of course, at that point, System Favorite also failed too.
Like you said above, I usually encrypt an entire drive with at least 1 partition. This method has never failed. It is when there is no partition like the above, I was not able to find the Device ID.
Anyway, I can't reemulate the problem so I think I will leave it here.
Thanks for your dedication.
Thank you for clarification. I should clarify my statement that you should have been able to see in the VeraCrypt Select Device window the device without any partitions called "Harddisk 2:" as an example. I believe when you select Harddrive 2: that it shows-up in the volume path in the main GUI as:
\Device\Harddisk2\Partition0
This behavior was on Windows XP 32-bit machine so it could be newer Windows OSs no longer will show the device as you outlined in your post above when the drive letter is removed from a disk with no partitions. Unfortunately, I do not have a spare drive to test this on my Windows 7 Pro 64-bit system. Just out of curiosity, what is your Windows version and bit 32/64?
Enigma2 I am on windows ultimate 7 64 bit. I am in the process of moving to Windows 10 in a month.