George Orwell <nobody@mixmaster.it> wrote in
news:d7ac7fb60c39b076fbe85e54bf4ba496@mixmaster.it :

Ah, the first of the whiners and cavillers has arrived. ...with a
farrago of nonsense. ...just as I predicted.


> nemo_outis wrote:
>
>> The entire disk IS encrypted, with the exception of the boot stub
>> on track 0.
>
> No, it's not. If you have two partitions and encrypt only the
> "system" partition the other isn't touched.

Are you usually this thick? Yes, even though you have a whole-disk
encryption program you can choose not to encrypt some partitions - or any
of them for that matter. However, choosing not to use the program's
capability for whole-disk encryption doesn't make it one whit less a
whole-disk encryption program.

As for a boot drive's partition table, some full HD OTFE programs may
encrypt it, while others may not - just as I said. For instance,
Bestcrypt Volume Encryption (one of the better commercial full-HD OTFE
programs) does NOT encrypt the partiton table on a fully encrypted hard
drive - I have just confirmed this with a number of partition managers
(using Hiren v9.3).

Why? Because encrypted partition tables are just asking for trouble from
some program that doesn't recognize that the disk is not trashed (i.e.,
one that misinterprets an encrypted partition table as a corrupted one).

Just as I said.

The benefit from encrypting the partition table? None!

It does not hide the fact that you are using encryption - that's already
instantly discernible by the presence of the encryption programs's
unencrypted executable stub code on track 0.

As for an unencrypted partition table disclosing info, that trivial info
is useless for decrypting the contents of the partitions or even
inferring the nature of what is contained in them.

As for Truecrypt supposedly not being a whole-disk encryption program,
that's just plain wrong. With the release of Version 5 Truecrypt is now
a full-fledged whole-disk encryption program, capable of encrypting any
or all of the partitions on any of the hard drives in a system, including
the boot/system one. Of course, Truecrypt does have an unencrypted stub
on track zero - as do ALL other whole-disk OTFE encryption programs.

Just as I said.

....additional rambling nonsense mercifully snipped...

Regards,