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Make use of the TrueCrypt software
With this software, you can :
‐ Create an encrypted storage space (or say volume) in your USB flash drive
‐ A password will be assigned to the encrypted volume and protect it from unauthorized access
‐ Unprotected and protected(encrypted) data can be exists at the same time
‐ Use the protected flash drive at different computers
* Before you begin, you’re recommended to backup all your data in the USB flash drive.
* When you use password to protect your device, please be sure to remember
the password. Lost of the password will results in failure to access your data permanently. Procedure (I) Install the software into the USB drive 1.1 Download the software from http://www.truecrypt.org . Currently, the most updated
version is 5.1a. You may save the downloaded file to Windows Desktop.
1.2 Connect the flash drive to your computer and jot down the Drive letter (e.g. Drive J: ).
1.3 Launch the installation program, select the first option to accept the license terms and click [Accept]
to continue.
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1.4 Select the [Extract] option and click [Next] button to continue.
1.5 Click the [Browse] button or input the installation location of the software. You should install to the
current USB drive which is J:/TrueCrypt in our case. Click [Extract] button to start the process.
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1.6 When the extraction process finish, click the [Finish] button to continue.
1.7 The installation of the software is completed. Click the [OK] button to finish.
1.7 You should be able to find the generated directory in the USB device (J:/TrueCrypt in our case).
Keep the USB device connected to your computers and go to the next section.
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Procedure (II) Generate an encrypted volume
2.1 Go to the installation direcotry and launch the TrueCrypt software from the USB drive
( “J:/TrueCrypt” in our case ).
2.2 Click the [Create Volume] button.
2.3 Select the [Create a file container] option and click [Next] to continue.
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2.4 Select the [Standard TrueCrypt Volume] option and click [Next] to continue. A standard volume is a
file that is visible in file manager. On the other hand, a hidden volume will not show up when you browser
the device. The hidden volume provides a more secure way and it is easier for the user to ignore the
existences of the encrypted volume. However, we recommend user to use standard volume unless you
are an advance user of this software.
2.5 Input the name of the encrypted volume you want to create with complete path information. The
new volume will be presented as a file named “My_Important_Data” in the USB drive in our case. Then
click [Next] to continue.
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2.6 Different encryption algorithms own different behavior. The AES is the most common one which
provides a good balance between performance and the security. Click [Next] button to continue.
2.7 Now input the volume size of the encrypted volume. Please make sure you have enough spaces to
do so. In this demo, we create a 100MB spaces in a 250MB device. Click [Next] button to continue.
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2.8 Input the password you want to assign to this volume. The security of the data depends on the
password you use. A serious password should be longer than 8 characters, a mixture of alphabets and
numbers, and should not use be your telephone number, birthday or HK ID card number are not
recommended.
2.9 At the Filesystem filed, select the [NTFS] option. In this screen, you will find the number at the
Random Pool option keep changing since the system is trying to generate random seeds for the
encryption. You can click the [Format] button anytime to start the process.
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2.10 Depends on the volume size you specified, the format will be completed within a few minutes.
Click the [Exit] button to finish the creation process.
At the end of the process, a new file named “J:/My_Important_Data” will be created in the USB drive as a
file. The content inside this encrypted file is not accessible unless the correct password is provided.
In fact, you can repeat this procedure to create multiple encrypted volumes in the same USB deivce. For
example, you may create “J:/My_Project_Data”, “J:/My_Departmental_Data”, or
“J:/My_Research_Papers” files in the USB device to hold different content.
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Procedure (III) Use the encrypted Volume
You have installed the TrueCrypt software into your USB device in section (I), therefore you can
access to the encrypted volume from computers without install the TrueCrypt software. To
access your data, go to the USB drive and launch the TrueCrypt software which is J:/TrueCrypt in
this demo.
3.1 First of all, select a drive letter first, say M: drive in our case. Click the [Select File] button to input
the path of the encrypted volume file (J:/My_Important_Data).
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3.2 Click the [Mount] button to connect to the encrypted volume.
3.3 Input the password assigned to this encrypted volume and click [OK] to continue. Please notice that
the password is case sensitive.
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3.4 Now you can see that the encrypted volume has been mounted to the computers as M: drive.
You can access to the encrypted content through the M: drive. During the time of use, the original J:
Drive will co‐exists all the time.
After you have completed your job, click [Dismount] button to disconnect the drive. Don’t forget to
disconnect the USB flash drive safely from your computer in the same way as other USB flash drive.
With the same procedure list in Section (II), you can actually create multiple encrypted volumes in one
single USB device and each of the volume assigned with a different password.
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