In parts 1 and 2, we talked about the general philosophy and setup of my USB drive. In parts 3 and 4, we went through a long list of applications that I am using on my USB drive.In this final section, I talk about some of the issues that I am challenged with.

Configuration Limitations and Future Ideas

While this configuration works extremely well, there are a few issues with this setup. For one, all of the files in the encrypted volume are physically located in one file. If that file becomes corrupt, your entire encrypted volume becomes corrupt. Yet another reason to backup and swap your USB drives as frequently as possible.Another issue revolves around not properly dismounting the encrypted drive. At best, you will need to reboot the computer before you can use your USB drive again. At worst, you can corrupt your encrypted drive and lose all of your data.

A third issue revolves around the Truecrypt driver. You either need to be a member of the local administrators on the computer you are working on or the Truecrypt driver needs to be already installed on the system. If not, you will not be able to mount the encrypted file and you will not have access to the content of the file.

One of the things that I would like to change about this setup is how and when backups occur. Right now, files are backed up from the encrypted drive to a backup host when the drive is plugged in. I would like to see the drive backed up immediately after the encrypted drive is dismounted and the entire encrypted file backed up in encrypted format. The two problems for this setup are:

1. you are usually in a rush when disconnecting and would probably not want to wait for a backup to occur and
2. this backup scheme would take significantly longer to back up because it would be copying one large file instead of several small files

One potential solution to the second problem could be the implementation of a portable rsync for the backup. This would detect only the changes between the original file and the new file and only copy those changes over. The encrypted file would then be rebuilt after the changes were copied.

I would also like to develop a way for the system to show me all files from the encrypted drive that are open prior to dismounting the encrypted drive. This way I can shut down these files and prevent potential file corruption.

Resources

Along with the applications that are listed above, you may also want to check out some useful websites. They have a lot more applications available than what I am presently using because I have focus on certain things. Hopefully these websites will have the applications that you are looking for:

The Portable Freeware Collection - http://www.portablefreeware.com/
Chris’ Realm - http://www.chall.plus.com/winpe/
Stand Alone Apps - http://standalone.atspace.org/
Portable Apps - http://portableapps.com/
Handy Programs To Put On A USB Stick at SnapFiles - http://www.snapfiles.com/features/ed_usb_software.html

Conclusion

I hope that you have found this look into my USB drive to be both useful and informative. If so, please consider supporting this website so that I can continue to bring useful articles and information to you.

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7 Responses to “Limitations, Challenges, and Resources”

1. Graham Says:
   November 28th, 2006 at 5:11 am

   thanks for putting this together. very interesting.

2. Jeff Says:
   December 7th, 2006 at 8:10 pm

   Maybe i’m stupid of somethings wrong on my end but the only link to work fo me was http://portableapps.com/. I got a couple of 404 errors and http://standalone.atspace.org/ seemed to be an ad for web hosting.

3. Tienie de Coning Says:
   March 22nd, 2007 at 2:53 am

   “I would also like to develope a way for the system to show me all files from the encrypted drive that are open prior to dismounting the encrypted drive. This way I can shut down these files and prevent potential file corruption.”

   You can use SySinternals Process Explorer for that. Click on the Find heading, type in the volume label for the drive (eg. G:) and press you can now view and close all the handles on the drive.

4. Daily Cup of Tech Says:
   March 27th, 2007 at 9:28 pm

   Users Online Using a TrueCrypt Volume Windows Backup With Rsync and FreeNAS Windows Home Server Screenshot Tour Windows Update Without Windows Update Wish List Zen and the Art of the USB Drive Series Limitations, Challenges, and Resources My Philosophy of the USB Drive Setup and Configuration of My USB Drive USB Drive Applications Part 1 USB Drive Applications Part 2

5. bigjohnny Says:
   April 1st, 2007 at 1:38 am

   I have a few different websites that have portable software at my delicious: http://del.icio.us/bigjohnny/portable

   the links in your article are improperly coded,they have your site added to the end:
   http://www.dailycupoftech.com/wp-content/elink.php?URL=http://www.portablefreeware.com/http://www.dailycupoftech.com/?page_id=53

6. Tim Fehlman Says:
   April 1st, 2007 at 4:29 am

   Thanks. Links have been repaired.

   Tim

7. Zen and the Art of the USB Drive Series | no-install Says:
   June 24th, 2009 at 8:15 am

   […] Limitations, Challenges, and Resources […]

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