> Sunday, September 19, 2004, 4:02:16 PM, Paul wrote: > > >> IMO an excellent advantage is the addition of PGP Disk (not >> available in the freeware version).
> explain PGP disk to me please. Why do you use it, and how does it work. > advantages and drawbacks?? Well the best explanation can probably be found at: http://www.mccune.cc/PGPpage2.htm#PGPdisk but I will try to explain it a little for you. Basically PGP Disk allows you to create "virtual hard disks". These are simply an encrypted container(s) (basically just a file on your hard disk) which you can mount as a system drive e.g. D:, E:, F:, G: etc. etc and it acts just like a "hard drive". This "disk" can be mounted and dismounted as you wish and it is protected by either a passphrase or your PGP key (or even both). In my own usage of PGP Disk, I have moved my mail base, newsgroups data, my browser preferences/cache/favourites etc. My Documents and my IM (Instant messaging) profiles and as many "user preferences" as possible, to run off the PGP disk which itself needs to mounted at logon for them to be available to the user (Me). Advantages: - User data (anything inside the container) is encrypted with strong encryption and cannot be accessed without passphrase. - Makes backing up data easy as only the one PGP container needs to be backed up. - Programs can be installed to a PGP Disk also. Again, they are only available while the disk is mounted. Disadvantages: - If you forget your password, you've had it! - As with all "virtual disks" it can be corrupted (although in my 3 years of using PGP disk this has never happened to me but I should warn you nonetheless). - Containers are only encrypted when they are dismounted. When mounted the data is as available as any other hard drive data would be (e.g. they will be available over a network - file and print sharing etc.) HTH -- ________________________________________________ Current version is 3.00.00 | 'Using TBUDL' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
