I want to protect my documents and mail from unauthorized access. How can Cryptic Disk help me?
You can set aside any disk or its partition for storing confidential information, including secret documents and your mail database. Use Cryptic Disk to create an encrypted disk/partition out of that disk or partition, mount it and copy all the data you want to protect to it. A password will be required to access this disk/partition. You can enter the password only once after you start the system and use the encrypted disk/partition as any regular disk/partition until you shut down the computer. Or if you rarely use the protected information, you can mount/unmount it any number of times during your work.
How strong is protection in Cryptic Disk? How can the password be broken?
The program uses the AES 256 encryption algorithm (with the 256-bit key length). Currently, there are no computers that could break the encryption key in a reasonable amount of time (it will take millions of years). A password, or more precisely its hash (SHA 256), is used to protect the encryption key. Neither the password nor its hash is stored anywhere. You enter it while mounting an encrypted disk/partition. If the password is not correct, it will be impossible to get the encryption key and consequently to decrypt information. We recommend that you do not use short or simple passwords. Store them in safe places or, even better, memorize them.
I forgot the password. Can I access the encrypted disk/partition without it?
The program can back up the encryption key. If you have a backup copy of this key, you can specify any new password for the disk/partition. Otherwise, it is impossible to recover the information.
Is there a connection between the account name of the operating system and the username in Cryptic Disk?
No, there isn't. Usernames in Cryptic Disk are not connected with system account names.The program has its own system of authentication and allocation of access rights.
Do I have to enter the password only once after the system is started or each time I try to access the protected disk/partition?
After you start the system, access to all encrypted disks and partitions is forbidden. The system simply does not see them. To get access, you should connect (activate/mount)the disk/partition in the Cryptic Disk program by entering the password. Until you unmount the disk/partition, you will be able to perform any operations available for a regular disk/partition. You can forbid access to the disk either manually (from Cryptic Disk, with a hotkey) or automatically.
If perpetrators steal my encrypted disk and connect it to another computer, will they be able to access my information?
No. It is impossible unless they have your password or the encryption key.
What disks does Cryptic Disk support?
Any storage devices supported by Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008.
All types of storage devices are supported: regular and dynamic hard drives, USB External HDD, Flash Drive, Flash Card, etc.
What do I have to do to connect an encrypted disk to another computer?
All you have to do is to install Cryptic Disk on the computer you connected the encrypted disk to. You will need only your password to mount it.
What should I do to be able to use my encrypted disk on various computers without downloading and installing the program on each of them?
You can split your hard disk into two partitions. Do not encrypt one of them (the smaller one, 10 MB will be quite enough), but copy the folder with Cryptic Disk to it. Encrypt the other partition. After you connect the hard disk to another computer, just run CrypticDisk.exe from the open partition and mount the encrypted disk to the system.
Is it necessary to install the program on the computer to be able to work with encrypted disks?
No, the program does not require installation. You can run CrypticDisk.exe from a flash drive or from any other removable disk. Keep in mind that you will need administrator rights to start the programs without installing it.
If I update Cryptic Disk to a new version, will I be able to use encrypted disks created in the old version?
Yes, you will. New versions of Cryptic Disk support (and will support) any encrypted disks created with previous versions of the program.
I want my disk to be always mounted to letter Z.
Open the settings dialog box of the encrypted disk and specify any free letter. The disk will be always mounted to this letter after that. If the specified letter is occupied, the program will mount the disk to the first free letter.
I have two partitions. One partition is C: where the operating system is installed and the other partition is D: encrypted with Cryptic Disk. Can I reinstall the operating system so that the encrypted disk is not damaged?
Yes, you can. You can reinstall the operating system on the partition C:, you can format it and the encrypted partition will not be damaged. After you reinstall the operating system, install Cryptic Disk and after that you can continue working with the encrypted partition.
What is the maximum size of encrypted disks or partitions?
The maximum size of encrypted disks is 2^64 bytes (16,777,216 TB). This is more than enough at the moment.
I have an external disk with one partition. It is better to create an encrypted disk based on the entire hard disk or on one partition?
We recommend that you create encrypted disks based on separate partitions. Otherwise, it is possible that the operating system will damage the header of the encrypted disk.
Can I allow someone to access encrypted disks only for reading data so that the person could not delete or damage it?
Sure. The program has its own system of authentication and allocation of access rights. With its help you can add a new user in the user manager and assign the corresponding rights to them.
When formatting a recently created encrypted disk the system informs that formatting cannot be completed.
If the encrypted disk is created on a removable disk, remove and then reconnect it to the computer, after which mount the encrypted disk and format it.
If the encrypted disk is created on a fixed disk, you should restart your computer and follow the above guidelines.
When trying to run the program in 64-bit Windows Vista OS it shows a message that the driver could not load.
The program’s driver of versions earlier than 2.7 does not have a digital signature, that is why its loading was blocked by the 64-bit operating system.
It is recommended to update the program to the recent version. Otherwise follow the below guidelines.
For the program to work you should enable the system to support drivers without a digital signature.
Upon starting Windows, enter the boot menu (by pressing F8), and select "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement".
You will be able to use the program till the next restart of the system.
If you don’t want to use the boot menu each time when starting the system, you may completely disable the driver signature enforcement with the help of the “bcdedit” system utility.
For this, activate the command line with the system administrator’s rights, run the "bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS" command (without quotes) in it and restart the computer.
Can I provide public access to the information on an encrypted disk to other users in the network?
Yes, it is possible. After connecting the encrypted disk, choose the necessary folder and enable public access to it with the required access rights being set. If you want the public access settings for this disk to restore after disconnecting/connecting the encrypted disk, enable the respective option in the settings of the encrypted disk.
I set public access to the encrypted disk, but when trying to access these resources from another computer I see an error.
First, make sure that the user has rights of access to this resource. If they do and the error keeps on reappearing, one needs to increase the parameter value of the IRPStackSize register in the operating system and restart the computer. See the detailed instructions on changing the value of the mentioned parameter on our website on the page "How to increase the value of the IRPStackSize parameter".
I use an encryption program to encrypt a removable hard drive. I have to enter registration data on every computer to which I connect the disk and run the program for the first time. Can I avoid this?
Starting from version 2.8.5, the product supports storing registration data in a file that you can save to the removable disk together with the program files. Create a text file with the name "license.dat" (for example, in the Notepad program) and put down two lines in it: a registration name in the first line, and a registration key in the second.
Example:
John Smith
K6GT-HT14-UT67-08FE
Why cannot the system partition be encrypted?
We strongly recommend that one does not encrypt system partitions because this possibility is not implemented in the Cryptic Disk product. The main reason why we do not recommend doing this is that, upon insignificant damage to the system partition, there is a high probability that the system will not be able to start. Apart from that, if the password is lost, it must be reset, which is only possible with the help of a special recovery disk. In practice, users rarely create recovery disks while they do not expect any problems which, however, sometimes occur.
We recommend keeping all the files that need to be protected on the other partition (not a system one) which can be encrypted with the help of the Cryptic Disk product. In this case, if a user looses the password or encounters other problems associated with encryption system usage, the operating system will still be functioning.
