If the HD is not used for a while will the encryption software lock you out even though password is correct? Have you heard of that happening?
No, never come across that, and it's not a function in Truecrypt. I'd presume hdd corruption or someone/thing messing with the header if that happened.
Very simple thread with a general overview of what is contained in an MBR. The partition table is what you absolutely want to capture, which will automatically happen when you backup the MBR. This is linux but the overview is the same for any mbr aligned disk. https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-copy-mbr/ You can do this using a linux RAM disk, you don't have to install Linux on your computer. OR there are numerous free tools to install on Windows for the simple purpose of backing up your MBR. Remember, its only 512 bytes. But man, those are important bytes if it hits the fan! Windows command running in Admin mode is another option. Easy stuff!
Thank you. I used HDHacker from here http://dimio.altervista.org/ and created the MBR backup. I found HDH is easier to use than other complicated software that are available. I took a screen shot of HDHacker window before I clicked on 'Save Sector to file'. Please see the screen shot attachment. To me it looks like some garbled matter. Do you think it has come off aright?
Not familiar with that software. I like to use Linux because my "of" (output file) is exactly 512 bytes, which of course is the exact size of an MBR. Its also to very easily run a sha256 sum of the saved file to compare to/with the MBR - still resident on the drive. They should match, which confirms 100 % reliability of a verified file!
I should have seen that. How stupid of me Thank you. I have the MBR now. I saved it in two locations but I need help to verify using sha 256 sum. I know how to use Hasher for MD 5 and Sha check but I am clueless about doing it for the MBR.
