Encrypt USB Stick with Vera Crypt
How to encrypt an USB stick using Vera Crypt.
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Installation
VeraCrypt is not available on the default Ubuntu repositories. Therefore, to install it using the package manger, you have to add the PPA repositories.
Add PPA repos using the command below. Note that this repository is not related to VeraCrypt even though Unit 193 is Xubuntu developer and he is a great contributor to the open source community;
Traveler Disk Setup
PLEASE NOTE: Since we are not using Windows, there is no Tools > Traveler Disk Setup
option. This is expected. Nevertheless, we can create the Traveler Disk manually:
... For linux and MAC this option is not available, but the apps are already portable. I just had to copy the executables from
/usr/bin
in Linux andApplications
in OSX. I've tested them on clean system where TrueCrypt wasn't installed. - Ask Ubuntu: Create veracrypt traveler disk in Ubuntu
Partition the USB Stick
The first step is to create two Partitions on your USB Stick:
a small one called
Travel-Disk
using theNTFS
file system and is512 MB
in sizethis partition won't be encrypted; It will provide the VeraCrypt binaries
a big one claiming all of the remaining space of your USB Stick
we are going to encrypt this partition in a minute
Copy VeraCrypt binaries
Next we'll transfer the VeraCrypt binaries to the Travel-Disk
Partition. Below we are assuming it is mounted under /media/$USER/Travel-Disk
.
Linux
macOS
Unfortunately for macOS there is no standalone version available, because macFUSE 3.10 or newer must be installed too. So the best we can do is to download the latest stable VeraCrypt DMG file along with the latest stable macFuse and copy both files to Travel-Disk
together with a brief README file:
Windows
There is a portable version available for Windows, so we download the latest stable version and copy it to Travel-Disk/Windows
:
Create encrypted partition
Now everything is ready to create the encrypted partition:
Start VeraCrypt
Go to
Tools > Volume Creation Wizard
Select
Create a Volume within a partition/drive
Select
Standard VeraCrypt volume
In Volume Location, click
Select Device...
then select the previously created, big partition (probably /dev/sda2)
Enter the local machine's Administrator password when prompted
In Encryption Options make sure to select something different than the defaults
Then set your Volume Password
Enable
Large File supportChoose
NTFS
as the Filesystem TypeEnable
Cross-Platform SupportFormat the Volume
Click
Exit
- and you're done
Further Reading
Last updated