Cloning encrypted files

[Weezy]

Curious if you clone a drive which has encrypted files (like within Truecrypt / Veracrypt), will it properly copy everything within the encrypted containers?

 

Follow up question - would be faster to clone a drive with a large encrypted container (while encrypted) or unencrypt the container and just copy/paste the data from one drive to the other instead?

[Bombastinator]

25 minutes ago, Weezy said:

Curious if you clone a drive which has encrypted files (like within Truecrypt / Veracrypt), will it properly copy everything within the encrypted containers?

 

Follow up question - would it be faster to clone a drive or just copy/paste data from one drive to another drive?

Well it will copy them as encrypted and will require the same key to unencrypted them.  Gobbltygoop will be copied faithfully so at the other end it is exactly the same gobbltygoop.  Copy/paste doesn’t read the files it copies.

[Weezy]

5 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Well it will copy them as encrypted and will require the same key to unencrypted them.  Gobbltygoop will be copied faithfully so at the other end it is exactly the same gobbltygoop.  Copy/paste doesn’t read the files it copies.

That's what I suspected. To be clear, I was asking if it would be faster to clone a drive with a large encrypted container (while encrypted) or unencrypt the container and just copy/paste the data from one drive to the other instead. I'll edit my OP to reflect that

Thanks

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Weezy said:

That's what I suspected. To be clear, I was asking if it would be faster to clone a drive with a large encrypted container (while encrypted) or unencrypt the container and just copy/paste the data from one drive to the other instead. I'll edit my OP to reflect that

Thanks

Ah.  Encryption often adds data.  I suspect things will be smaller (and therefore quicker) unencrypted rather than encrypted.  Compressed is a different thing though.  You could compress the files, transfer them, and uncompressed them.  The compressing and uncompressing time needs to be added to transfer time though so the compressed files would need to be things that are very very compressible, like picture files with a lot of white space. If the files don’t compress very much, it could be a false economy.

[Weezy]

7 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah.  Encryption often adds data.  I suspect things will be smaller (and therefore quicker) unencrypted rather than encrypted.  Compressed is a different thing though.  You could compress the files, transfer them, and uncompressed them.  The compressing and uncompressing time needs to be added to transfer time though so the compressed files would need to be things that are very very compressible, like picture files with a lot of white space. If the files don’t compress very much, it could be a false economy.

Got it! I'll just go the route of good old copy/paste... only about 200GB of data transferring to an HDD for storage, so shouldn't be too bad even with HDD speeds. Thanks for the advice!

[Bombastinator]

Just now, Weezy said:

Got it! I'll just go the route of good old copy/paste... only about 200GB of data transferring to an HDD for storage, so shouldn't be too bad even with HDD speeds. Thanks for the advice!

Copy/paste is not a drive clone.  Drive clones are for when you want apps to work. 

[Weezy]

6 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Copy/paste is not a drive clone.  Drive clones are for when you want apps to work. 

Maybe I'm not saying it correctly. I could clone a disk drive and everything on it would copy, no? I realize cloning works great for the OS, apps, etc, I've done that as well and worked perfectly... but can't ya clone a drive just to copy everything even if there is no OS or apps/programs on that drive??

[wanderingfool2]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah.  Encryption often adds data.  I suspect things will be smaller (and therefore quicker) unencrypted rather than encrypted.

I would say that greatly depends on what data is being stored (assuming it's just encrypted and not compressed)

 

While I don't know what TrueCrypt uses but you can achieve encryption with pretty low overhead in regards to the extra data (to the point where transferring isn't likely going to add enough data to slow things down).

 

On the other hand though, if you decrypt and copy over if you have a lot of files you will be spending a lot more time writing the files.  e.g. copying 10,000 text files at 1mb takes significantly longer than copying a single 1mb file.

 

So I'd suspect that transferring the entire contain file is likely quicker.  If there was compression used inside the container then it would definitely be faster copying the container.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, Weezy said:

Maybe I'm not saying it correctly. I could clone a disk drive and everything on it would copy, no? I realize cloning works great for the OS, apps, etc, I've done that as well and worked perfectly... but can't ya clone a drive just to copy everything even if there is no OS or apps/programs on that drive??

Yes.  A clone is an “everything” though.  All the file folders and names and hidden crap at once, so even though it’s on a different drive the structure is the same so the apps can keep running.  A clone is a copy/paste but it’s an “everything in the same order”copy/paste, whereas a straight copy/paste doesn’t have to be and will skip some invisible stuff that isn’t data.  You can also paste something down wherever you want to that might not be in the same order as on the original drive. Copy/paste works for data, but it doesn’t change the connection references so apps tend to break. A copy/paste is not necessarily a clone.  It usually isn’t actually.  You can make a new drive with copy/paste by moving the files and reinstalling the apps, but it won’t be a clone.  A Cloned drive is a specific thing that is more than just a data copy.  You can’t do a drive clone and do “everything but this bit”. A drive with a malware infection that gets cloned will still have a malware infection on the new drive.

Edited November 26, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Weezy]

10 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

I would say that greatly depends on what data is being stored (assuming it's just encrypted and not compressed)

 

While I don't know what TrueCrypt uses but you can achieve encryption with pretty low overhead in regards to the extra data (to the point where transferring isn't likely going to add enough data to slow things down).

 

On the other hand though, if you decrypt and copy over if you have a lot of files you will be spending a lot more time writing the files.  e.g. copying 10,000 text files at 1mb takes significantly longer than copying a single 1mb file.

 

So I'd suspect that transferring the entire contain file is likely quicker.  If there was compression used inside the container then it would definitely be faster copying the container.

Perfect, thanks!