TrueImage and TrueCrypt Whole Disk Encryption

How does TrueImage handle TrueCrypt Whole Disk Encryption?

1. If I have WDE encoded hard drive, can I make a backup from either Windows TrueImage or TrueImage boot CD, and restore the image with WHE in place as it was?

2. Is it possible to make a Windows mountable TrueImage image from WHE encrypted drive?

 

If you image the encrypted drive by booting from the Acronis Rescue CD the result will be a sector-by-sector image of the encrypted data. Since there will be no recognizable filesystem I'm pretty sure ATI won't be able to mount the image, but if it could then all you would see would be a bunch of encrypted data, much the same as if you used a hex editor to directly view the contents of the encrypted drive. (Exception: Track 0, which contains the MBR, the TrueCrypt bootloader and the encryption header, is not encrypted on the hard drive and neither will it be encrypted in the image.) The drawback of using this technique is that the size of the image file will be huge, since it will be approximately the same size as the drive being imaged.

If you image the drive from within Windows, the result will be a normal-sized unencrypted image which can be mounted and viewed using ATI. Restoring the image will result in an unencrypted drive, although the TrueCrypt bootloader will still be present on Track 0. At this point you have two options: 1) To return to a normal unencrypted system, boot to the TrueCrypt Rescue Disk and restore the original Track 0, or 2) Use TrueCrypt to re-encrypt the system.

More here:
http://forums.truecrypt.org/viewtopic.php?p=41199