Encrypt files with VeraCrypt
VeraCrypt is a free cross-platform tool that allows you to encrypt the data. Read more about encrypting your data on my blog.
I use “encrypted file container”. When I mount it, it behaves like an additional disk drive. All files that I put inside it are encrypted.
Create file container
Install VeraCrypt like an usual application. Turn on the VeraCrypt start after system’s boot.
Click: Volumes > Create New Volume…
And follow the process:
Save it for example as a D:\drive file.
Select AES because it is the most reliable encryption algorithm right now. It is very likely that your processor has hardware acceleration for this algorithm. It means that the processor has a special component that handles assembler operation for encoding and decoding with AES. Implementation of AES is hardware in this situation. Otherwise, when your processor does not support AES, it has to compute software routines for encoding and decoding, which are resource intensive.
Select size of the volume. We will use dynamically sized disk so the value here is the highest size of the disk.
Type the password. Remember that it has to be long without dictionary words.
When it comes to large files, it does not matter what you choose. We will set NTFS file system so it will work well with large files.
Set Dynamic and NTFS. Move cursor all over the window to collect randomness from the movements.
Finally, the process is over. Let’s look at the properties of the drive file that we generated.
(Sorry for Polish). The size is 450 GB just like we selected. It is the maximum size of our disk. It consumes 100 MB of space from the real disk right now. It will be expanding while data will be saved.
Mount container as a drive
In VeraCrypt window that you turned on from the tray, select drive letter that you would like to reserve for the container. We select S and Select File… Then click Mount.
Type the password:
Container is mounted:
As you see in Computer, it shows as a local drive:
Favorites
Favorites is a list of containers that you can easily mount by click or automatically.
Let’s add our S disk to favorites.
It shows on the list:
For disk containers that has a real file on the hard drive of the machine you use we can select option:
- Mount selected volume upon logon.
When container is saved on the external drives you can use:
- Mount selected volume when its host device gets connected.
But with this option, it can be problematic to disconnect your drive. The better way is to use Mount Favorite Volumes in that case.
Summary
I hope you know how to encrypt your precious data now.
If you have any questions or comments. Please let me know. Constructive feedback is appreciated.
