Imaging encrypted disks

[em31]

I figured this woould be a fairly common question but if that is true then I have not been able to track down too many answers yet.

The policy at my work is to encrypt entire hard disks as opposed to the less intrusive file-based encryption solutions. We use SecureDoc by Winmagic. I would like to find some disk imaging software which supports incremental images for backup purposes.

Ghost will support making a RAW image, basically a sector by sector copy which (shock) comes out to be exactly the same size as the drive being imaged but they do not seem to have a differential option that works when taking an image of this type. My backups will pretty quickly fill up even a very large external drive using this technique.

Are there any other disk imaging solutions that are known to work with encrypted disks?

Thanks in advance.

[dd28]

I am not sure I understand - Why would you want to do the incremental backup on the full disk ? After the system boots with SecureDoc, you should have access as administrator to all the files, and can do an incremental file backup with regular file backup tools ?

Ghost will give you a bare metal recovery option - why would you like to update that on a weekly basis ? did you do it for non encrypted disks ?
did you have an incremental tool for non encrypted ?

dd

[em31]

I am not sure I understand - Why would you want to do the incremental backup on the full disk ? After the system boots with SecureDoc, you should have access as administrator to all the files, and can do an incremental file backup with regular file backup tools ?

Ghost will give you a bare metal recovery option - why would you like to update that on a weekly basis ? did you do it for non encrypted disks ?
did you have an incremental tool for non encrypted ?

dd

The incremental file backup solution does not work for several reasons. It is against company policy to backup sensitive data in the clear to external back up media such as a USB drive and incremental file backups are more complex once the registry is considered.

In any event we are looking for a very simple, more or less turnkey solution that can be handed off to developers or varying skill levels. Something along the lines of Turn the machine on, config.sys "Select menu choice 1 to backup your hard disk" type if thing. I think we are there right now except for the fact that each new backup is costly in disk space because Ghost does not seem to support the option to backup only those encrypted sectors which have changed.

[wayne1123]

Hello there, my name is Wayne and I am from WinMagic Technical Support Team. In order to create a compressed ghost image (smaller size) of SecureDoc encrypted system, you would need to authenticate at SecureDoc pre-boot authentication screen before boot into Ghost DOS application. You can do this by going through SecureDoc Advanced Configuration Menu (F8) after authenticated. If you are not sure how to this step, let me know and I can provide you with detail instruction. With this method, the ghost image is in plaintext and therefore compressed. If you encrypt the USB drive/extra hard drive using the same encryption key, then you can store the plaintext backup image on an encrypted hard drive and that should comply with your company policy.

As of the latest version, SecureDoc v4.3 supports the following backup/imaging tools at Windows time:

- Acronis TrueImage 9.1
- Acronis TrueImage 10 Home
- Norton Ghost 10

With the above tools, user can login Windows and perform full/incremental backup while the hard disk is fully encrypted by SecureDoc. Of course the backup image can be safely stored on encrypted media/hard drive.

[FlavioB]

Hello there.

I was reading and seeking through the forum...

What about cloning a SecureDoc encrypted HDD onto an SSD: is this somehow possible?

Kind regards,
F.

[devicedoc]

Hello there, my name is Wayne and I am from WinMagic Technical Support Team.

Wayne

I have a Dell 9010 using a 2.5" 500 gB HDD that is fully encrypted with securedoc enterprise version. The mobo failed. So my work folks gave me another 9010 mobo, and I plugged in the old HDD to the mobo. I get the SecureDoc Flash at boot, then the Win 7 Enterprise Splash, but then a BSOD prior to the Windows password.

I have read/write rights to this hardrive (use original HDD as slave), and I have copied all of my data. But the HDD has a large number of installed programs, and my life would be a lot easier if I could make it work. I am guessing that it has a read error, even though every program that I have run says "no errors."

I have tried cloning it onto another HDD (which is larger, since that is what I have) using Acronis (in Windows and standalone), but I am getting a SecureDoc error on boot. I cannot get to the authentication screen.

Our folks say "reload your programs." Is there a way aroudn this?

thanks