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Understanding Disk encryption and Macrium Reflect

Understanding Disk encryption and Macrium Reflect

Disk encryption software is provided by Microsoft under the name Bitlocker. Various third party tools, such as TrueCrypt, McAfee SafeBoot and PGP Whole Disk Encryption offer similar functionality.

You can choose to encrypt your data in the following ways.
1) System disk/partition encryption
2) Data partition/disk encryption
3) File based virtual disk
The method you choose impacts on how you can image, backup and restore your system or files.

	System Disk/Data Partition Encryption	File based virtual disk
Windows/Reflect	Encrypted partitions are unencrypted on the fly, so applications, including Reflect will be presented will an unencrypted partition.	The mounted virtual disk will not be recognised as a disk by Reflect. However, the virtual disk file will be imaged correctly when the containing partition is imaged, or it is included in a file and folder backup. Note: You should unmount the virtual disk before the backup.
Image file contents	By default, unencrypted - use Reflect encryption. If this image is restored, the restored partitions will be unencrypted.	The virtual disk file is stored in its encrypted state. There is no need to use Reflect encryption.
Rescue CD	Encrypted partitions will be displayed unformatted. It is not possible to navigate the contents. They can be imaged, only in 'exact copy' mode. The fix boot problems and redeploy functions will not work.	It is not possible to mount virtual disk files with the rescue CD. However, they can be restored from a backup, if they become corrupted.
Booting off a restored system partition	If you restore a system partition using the rescue CD, it will be restored un-encrypted. This is likely to lead to a non-bootable system as the bootloader is configured for an encrypted partition. If you wish to image an encrypted partition that will be bootable on restore, you must take the image using the rescue CD. This can only be do in 'exact copy' mode, so will be slower than a normal image and will result in a larger file.	n/a