FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

What is a Virtual Encrypted Disk?

Virtual Encrypted Disk refers to the collection of files that USBCrypt creates to keep your encrypted files secure. It's a "disk" because after you enter your password, the encrypted files appear as a disk in the Computer folder. It's "virtual" because there is no actual physical disk involved there. It's "encrypted" because, well, it's encrypted. Before you enter your password, your data within the Virtual Encrypted Disk files appear as a random collection of 1s and 0s. After you enter your password the magic of the encryption algorithms kicks in and all those 1s and 0s are put together by the encryption driver in the correct order, to make them available to you as a virtual disk inside of the Computer folder.

What is a "host drive"?

Host drive is the actual physical drive that you use to "host" the Virtual Encrypted Disk. It has its own icon (and drive letter) in the Computer folder. When you start the Virtual Encrypted Disk, a separate icon appears there to represent your encrypted files.

How exactly do you do the encryption?

Please see a special web site that we've created to provide the technical details about the format of the Virtual Encrypted Disks and our implementation of the encryption and other related algorithms: http://www.encryption-driver.com

Will the encrypted files be protected in the "safe mode" of Windows?

Yes, they will be protected no matter how you start Windows (in the safe mode or normally), or if someone were to remove the encrypted drive and attach it to another computer, even if another computer runs a different operating system (such as Linux), no matter what your encrypted files will be protected until you enter the correct password. That's the power of strong encryption!

I've lost USBCrypt password. What should I do?

If you've created a "spare key" file for your encrypted disk, you can use it to reset the password. Note that each encrypted disk must have a separate "spare key" created specifically for it. If you did not create the "spare key" file, then the only way to recover your password is by trying every possible combination of the password characters. Of course, if you've chosen a strong password and then forgotten it, the recovery process can take a very long time, so don't count on it as a reliable way of getting access to your encrypted files.

Will my anti-virus program protect files on the encrypted disk?

If you have not entered your password yet (and the Virtual Encrypted disk has not started) then all the files and folders it contains remain completely inaccessible to any program, including anti-virus. (The viruses cannot infect your encrypted files, either). After you've entered your password and started the Virtual Encrypted Disk, it becomes available to all programs, including anti-virus (and viruses!), just like any other regular disk. Unless you have excluded the Virtual Encrypted Disk from your anti-virus software, then it should be protected by the anti-virus, like any other disk.

Will my backup program back up the files located on the encrypted disk?

If the Virtual Encrypted Disk has not started, then you can backup the host disk, and that should backup the files of the Virtual Encrypted Disk, too. (They will remain encrypted in the backup set). If the Virtual Encrypted Disk has started, then you can backup individual files or folders that it contains, just like on a regular disk. Be aware, however, that in this case the files will be backed up in their plain, decrypted state.

How do I use Windows Backup with the encrypted drive?

Windows Backup software that comes with Windows 7 or Windows Vista is very picky about the drives to backup your files to. To make it recognize your encrypted drive as a valid backup destination, you need to choose the NTFS file system for the Virtual Encrypted Disk when encrypting the drive, and also start it as a removable drive. (You can select this option by clicking on the More Options button when starting the disk). Even then, it won't let you backup the system image to such a drive. If you must backup the system image to an encrypted drive, you may want to use some other backup software that recognizes the encrypted drives as valid backup destinations.

How do I enter the License Key?

Run USBCrypt off the Start menu and click on the link Licensed for limited evaluation use only. This should open the About USBCrypt window. Press the Enter License Key button and enter your license information into the form.

Or, click on the question mark button in the right-top corner of the USBCrypt window, and choose the Enter License Key command from the menu, then and enter your license information into the form.

IMPORTANT: When entering your license information, make sure you enter your name, number of computers, and the license key exactly as they are shown on your license certificate, including all capitalization and punctuation. Otherwise, USBCrypt may not accept the license key or may not register your information properly. You may wish to copy and paste the name and key from our message into the form, to avoid typos.

What happens when the evaluation period expires?

This software comes with a built-in license that allows you to use it for free for the first 30 days after the installation. When this initial evaluation period expires, you can still run USBCrypt, but you cannot use it to encrypt any new drives. Also, you can start the previously encrypted drives in the write-protected mode only. This should allow you to extract your existing files out of the encrypted disks, but you won't be able save the modifications back to them. The full functionality of USBCrypt is restored immediately if you purchase a license for its continued use and enter your license key into the program.

Can I use the same license key to install USBCrypt on several computers?

Yes, you can use the same license key, provided that you are installing it on no more computers than included in your license. Please refer to the file License.txt (installed along with other files of USBCrypt) for the detailed description of the terms of using this software on more than one computer. For information on our site license and quantity discounts, please visit our Online Store .

May I give a copy of USBCrypt software to a friend?

Yes, you may give the installation files of our programs to your friends and associates. However, you may NOT share your license key, if any, with anybody else. Please remember that the license key we provide you with are for your own use only. If your friends like our programs, please let them purchase their own license keys. To avoid possible confusion, please give out the original installation files that you may download from our web site.

There are several other simple, but important conditions which we impose on further redistribution of our products. Please refer to the file License.txt in the folder where you have installed USBCrypt for the complete description of our distribution requirements.

How can I get a printed version of this guide?

This user's guide is available online in the printed-friendly format:

http://www.winability.com/usbcrypt/users-guide-printable.htm

Open the link above in your web browser and use the web browser's Print command to print it out on your printer.