After TrueCrypt declared and ceased any further development of their immensely popular virtual disk encryption tool, many people were dismayed. But soon other open source developers picked up where TrueCrypt had left and created a new software called VeraCrypt based on TrueCrypt. Just like TrueCrypt, VeraCrypt is also a disk encryption software that allows you to create virtual encrypted storage disks on your Windows computer. It uses highly secure AES, Serpent and Twofish ciphers and their combinations to encrypt your data. If you have been using TrueCrypt to protect your sensitive data, it is time to switch over to VeraCrypt. Even though VeraCrypt does not support TrueCrypt storage format per se, you can easily mount both TrueCrypt and VeraCrypt volumes and copy files from one to another.
After installing VeraCrypt in Windows, the first thing you have to do is create an encrypted volume. It gives you three options for the volumes – encrypted file based volume (which is extremely portable), encrypted partition volume or encrypt entire system volume (which requires you to enter password every time Windows boots).
In the next steps, you have to choose whether you want a hidden volume or visible volume. The hidden volume is especially useful when you do not want anyone to see this suspicious looking disk. You also have to choose a location for the volume (if you selected file based volume).
Then you have to decide on the type of encryption ciphers you are going to use. It supports AES, Serpent and Twofish ciphers. And for even more security, you can also choose their combinations. For hashing requirements, it supports SHA-512, RIPEMD-160 and Whirlpool.
After this, you have to choose a volume size for the encrypted volume, the volume password and the file system type. For better security, the volume size should not be too large, so that nobody becomes suspicious about a very large size file. The password must be at least 20 characters long and if you cannot think of a strong password, then you can use Norton Password Generator to create a strong password for you. It supports both NTFS and FAT file systems. At the end of the volume creation wizard, you can click on the Format button to prepare the new encrypted volume for you and format it.
When the volume is ready, you can launch the VeraCrypt disk mounting utility, select an available disk drive, select your encrypted volume and click on the Mount button. After supplying the password, this will mount the encrypted volume like any other regular disk drive in Windows Explorer. All the files you copy or create on this volume are automatically encrypted. When you are done using this volume, you can unmount it and it will disappear from Windows File Explorer.
Conclusion: The VeraCrypt encrypted volume storage software is true replacement for the deprecated TrueCrypt software. It is highly secure and uses powerful ciphers like AES, Twofish, Serpent and their combinations for protecting your data. It can create encrypted file based volumes, encrypted partitions or encrypt your entire system partition.
You can download VeraCrypt from https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/.