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Free disk encryption software for PCs and PDAs
(PDA version of WWW site)

Getting Started Guide

Pretty much everything in FreeOTFE Explorer works as it seems, and should be fairly self explanatory. If there's anything you're not too sure of, most times an educated guess will give you the right answer.


Installation

Before FreeOTFE Explorer can be used, it must first either be installed.

Please see the section on Installation and Upgrading for instructions on how to do this.


Using FreeOTFE Explorer

Once FreeOTFE Explorer is installed, securing your data is simple:

  1. Create a volume to store your encrypted data on (or several, if you choose!)
  2. Mount the volume created.
  3. Files and directories may then be stored in, or extracted from your mounted volume.

    Anything and everything stored on the mounted volume (documents, pictures, videos, software - whatever you like) will be automatically encrypted and stored within the volume you created, at the point that it's stored.

    The encryption process is totally transparent to the user, and is carried out on-the-fly as data is written to the volume. Similarly, decryption is carried out transparently when data is read from it.

    You can drag files and folders onto the mounted volume FreeOTFE Explorer to store them.

  4. To secure your data, simply dismount the drive, or close FreeOTFE Explorer. At that point, the encryption/decryption key is overwritten in memory - making your data totally inaccessable until the password (and other parameters, if needed) are supplied, and the volume is mounted again.

The following sections give more detailed instructions on how do carry out each of these steps.


Creating a new volume

In order to use FreeOTFE Explorer, you must first create a "disk image" (called a "volume") to represent your virtual drive.

This is a fairly straightforward process, and consists of using FreeOTFE Explorer to create a large file (or setup a partition) on your computer's hard drive.

Technical note This volume will hold an encrypted "disk image" of your virtual drive, and is where FreeOTFE Explorer will store all data written to your virtual drive.

This file (or partition) can subsequently be "mounted" within FreeOTFE Explorer - anything stored to which will be automatically encrypted before being written to volume file.

To create a new volume, select "File | New..." menuitem to display the "new volume wizard", which will guide you through the process in a series of simple steps.

New volume wizard

When prompted to select between creating a file or partition based volume, new users should select "File". This is the safer of the two options - partition based volumes are intended for more advanced users.

Some users who are unfamiliar with disk encryption systems may not understand all of the options they are presented with. If you feel that you are in this position, you should probably simply accept the default values you are presented with, which will give you a volume that will be secure enough for your needs.

FreeOTFE Explorer is a highly flexible system that caters for both novice and advanced users alike; many of the options that the volume creation wizard provides you with are intended for more advanced users who understand the implications of the options provided (e.g. storing a volume's CDB separately to the volume file it relates to), and how they operate.

Tip! You may want to create and use multiple volumes; one to store work related files, one for personal files, etc

Security tip Do not simply copy an existing volume file to create a new one - even if you change the password on the "new" volume. If you do this, both volumes will have the same encrypted master key, which reduces the amount of security offered.


Mounting volumes

Once you have created a volume, it must be "mounted" in order for it to accessed via FreeOTFE Explorer.

Select "File | Mount file..." menuitem to mount a file based volume, or "File | Mount partition..." to mount a partition based volume.

You will then be prompted to select which volume you wish to mount; do so, and click "OK" to display the password entry dialog.

Password entry dialog

Enter your volume's password, and click "OK". If the correct password has been entered, the volume will be mounted and shown in the main FreeOTFE Explorer window.

Tip! To reduce the time taken FreeOTFE Explorer spends mounting volumes, see the FAQ How can I speed FreeOTFE up when mounting my volumes?

Security tip To increase security, it is recommended that after a volume is formatted, it is overwritten with random data. However, this process can take some time and may be skipped if required. See section on plausible deniability for further details

Once mounted, files and folders can be stored and extracted from an encrypted volume, which will be transparently encrypted and decrypted as and when needed.

Tip! You can run more than one instance of FreeOTFE Explorer running at the same time to mount multiple volumes at the same time


Storing files in a volume

Once mounted, files and folders may be stored within an encrypted volume, by either:
  • Selecting "Edit | Store" followed by either "File" or "Folder" from the main menu
  • Clicking the "Store" icon on the toolbar, and selecting either "File" or "Folder" from the menu displayed
  • Rightclicking on the main window to display the context menu, and selecting "Store" followed by either "File" or "Folder"
  • Dragging files or folders from MS Windows Explorer and dropping them onto the main FreeOTFE Explorer window

Security tip After storing files/folders in a encrypted volume, use a file overwriter to overwrite the original copy, making them unrecoverable and leaving the only remaining copy securely encrypted within the volume.


Extracting files from a volume

Once mounted, files and folders stored within an encrypted volume may be extracted to the local hard disk by selecting the items to be extracted, and either:
  • Selecting "Edit | Extract" from the main menu
  • Clicking the "Extract" icon on the toolbar
  • Rightclicking on the main window to display the context menu, and selecting "Extract"
Extracting files/folders from an encrypted volume will not remove them from the volume, but simply makes a copy of them to the computers local disk.


Dismounting volumes

Once you have finished using your secured volume, it should be "dismounted". This will remove access to it, and wipe any sensitive information FreeOTFE Explorer has stored in the computers memory.

Click the "File | Dismount" menuitem; or the toolbar icon.


Changing a volume's password

To change a volume's password (or a keyfile's password), select the "Tools | Change volume/keyfile password/details..." to display the "change password wizard", which will guide you through the process in a series of simple steps.

Note that volumes must be dismounted first before they can be modified in this way.

Tip! You may also change certain volume/keyfile details via this wizard; for example, the default drive letter which the volume will normally be mounted as. Advanced users may also change more technical details, such as the length of salt used in encrypting the volume's CDB/keyfile

Technical note In common with most disk encryption systems, FreeOTFE Explorer uses an "encrypted master key" system to secure volumes.

Every FreeOTFE volume has its own "master encryption key" which is generated when the volume is created. This master key is used to carry out the actual encryption/decryption process used to secure data stored within the volume.

A volume's master encryption key is, in turn, encrypted with the (PBKDF2 processed) user's password. As a consequence, FreeOTFE Explorer doesn't need to decrypt and re-encrypt the entire volume to change the user's password - only the encrypted master encryption key. This makes changing a volume/keyfile's password an extremely quick, and risk free, operation when compared to a complete volume re-encryption.