TWS Posted May 30, 2002 Report Share Posted May 30, 2002 First, I'm not a techie, so I apologize if my terminology isn't precise. Also, I'm a small business owner without a lot of funds for expensive solutions to my problem. For confidentiality concerns, I encrypte certain folders (i.e. My Documents) on my laptop, so that should I lose it, it would be harder for that data to be accessed by the finder/thief. Recently the encryption "key" (I believe that's the term) became corrupted and I couldn't access those folders. To make a long story short, only way to restore everything was to reinstall an old full backup. I do daily backups of these encrypted folders since they change. I was negligent in not doing regular full harddrive backups, and I've paid for that in time spent bringing my computer up to the present time. My computer support person was surprised that when he initially tried to restore the most recent daily backup, it wouldn't work (this was prior to doing the full restore). He said he thought the backup would store this encryption key, but apparently it doesn't. My questions: 1. if files are encrypted on my harddrive and I back them up to a CD using Retrospect Express, are they encrypted on the CD? 2. Is it using Retrospects encryption system, or the one in Win2000? If it is encypted, if that CD is lost/stolen, can anyone with Retrospect access the info? 3. Finally, can this encrytion "key" that was corrupted on my computer be backed up onto the backup CD without compromising security if the CD is lost? The goal is to protect the data on the computer if lost/stolen while allowing regular partial backups (daily) and periodic full backups (whole C drive) without compromising the data on the CD backup and minimizing the problems of restoring data if I have this corruption problem again. Probably a lot to ask for, but ... Thanks in advance for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted May 31, 2002 Report Share Posted May 31, 2002 Yes, Retrospect backs up and restores files encrypted. That is, it remains encrypted in the backup set, and if you restore it to a different system, it would be unreadable, as it can only be decrypted on the system it was encrypted on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jreffner Posted June 6, 2002 Report Share Posted June 6, 2002 These are good questions. I have a few more: 1. Does an encrypted Retrospect BackUp use an encryption key, or does it use a password? 2. If it uses a key, then can the key be backed up to a CD-R, Zip, etc.? It would seem stupid if it weren't able; nor would a key on the backup media be too secure. 3. What do you mean by "if you restore it to a different system, it would be unreadable"? Is your own hard drive that's been initilized and your OS re-installed viewed as a "different system"? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lv2ski Posted June 6, 2002 Report Share Posted June 6, 2002 1) It can use either. You have the choise when you put security on the backup. 2) DES - read about it on our website at www.dantz.com/knowledgebase 3) >>3. What do you mean by "if you restore it to a different system, it would be unreadable"? Is your own hard drive that's been initilized and your OS re-installed viewed as a "different system"? << If its a different system, with a different user - its not readable. If its reinstalled system, same user, it would be readable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jreffner Posted June 7, 2002 Report Share Posted June 7, 2002 Melissa, Thanks for the info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.