Experiences with TrueCrypt and disk encryption in general?

[MrCrispy]

I've played with TrueCrypt but have never entrusted massive amounts of data to it. On my new pc I'm installing Vista but will not be using BitLocker since its overkill and has its own security issues, however I do want most of my data to remain safe. I'm thinking of making a huge 400GB TrueCrypt partition and just put everything in there, but I'm concerned with reliability and what happens if I lose the whole container due to a file error. Performance is not an issue from what I've seen. Whats the largest encrypted container you have used?

[wr975]

A quick read in the FAQ of TrueCrypt told me following:

• It supports up to 8589934592 GB. So a 400 GB partition should be no problem.
  
• If there's an error in a file, the file is lost but the rest is not affected.
  
• And volume headers can be backed up & repaired.

I'd say you're pretty safe with TrueCrypt. Just don't forget to backup important data. That's a must, no matter if you use TrueCrypt or not. 

Spoiler

Q: What will happen when a part of a TrueCrypt volume becomes corrupted?

A: In encrypted data, one corrupted bit usually corrupts the whole ciphertext block in which it occurred. The ciphertext block size used by TrueCrypt is 16 bytes (i.e., 128 bits). The mode of operation used by TrueCrypt ensures that if data corruption occurs within a block, the remaining blocks are not affected.

Due to hardware or software errors/malfunctions, files stored on a TrueCrypt volume may become corrupted. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you backup all your important files regularly (this, of course, applies to any important data, not just to encrypted data stored on TrueCrypt volumes). If you do not have enough free space to backup all files, we highly recommend that you at least backup the volume header, which contains the master key (size of the backup file will be 1024 bytes). If a volume header is damaged, the volume is, in most cases, impossible to mount. To backup a volume header, click Select Device or Select File and select the volume. Then click Tools -> Backup Volume Header. To restore the header, follow the same steps except the last where you select Restore Volume Header.


Q: What do I do when the encrypted filesystem on my TrueCrypt volume is corrupted?

A: File system within a TrueCrypt volume may become corrupted in the same way as any normal unencrypted file system. When that happens, you can use filesystem repair tools supplied with your operating system to fix it. In Windows, it is the 'chkdsk' tool. TrueCrypt provides an easy way to use this tool on a TrueCrypt volume: First, make a backup copy of the TrueCrypt volume (because the 'chkdsk' tool might damage the filesystem even more) and then mount it. Right-click the mounted volume in the main TrueCrypt window (in the drive list) and from the context menu select 'Repair Filesystem'.

[masu]

Yeah TrueCrypt is pretty secure. I have my partition encryptyd with TC (about 200GB). No problems until now.

[mwang]

I've been using Truecrypt for several years. It's fast, reliable and transparent. I've never lost my notebook or HD, so I can't attest to its strength against hacking/cracking. Being open source, however, I wouldn't worry too much about it.