Can you Encrypt on a Basic Disk ?

susuandme

Hello members,

I wanted to ask if you can encrypt a file or folder on a basic Disk ?

I thought encryption is only available on NTFS, but I am confused,
is it true that NTFS can hold either a basic or dynamic disk.

can someone explain this. thanks, ric

Daniel333

Sounds like you are getting the concept of a Basic disk and a dynamic disk mixed up with the concept of a file system.


EFS Encryption is a feature of NTFS.

susuandme

Thankyou,

But can you encrypt a file on a basic disk.

Also can you put NTFS on a Basic disk ?

Can you explain this a little more please so I'll understand

thankyou

aordal

But can you encrypt a file on a basic disk.

Yes.

Also can you put NTFS on a Basic disk ?

Yes.

Can you explain this a little more please so I'll understand

A basic disk is a physical disk that can be accessed by MS–DOS and all Windows-based operating systems.

A dynamic disk is a physical disk that provides features that basic disks do not, such as support for volumes spanning multiple disks.

royal

[sarcasm]Dunno about you guys, but this whole NTFS hype thing is just that, hype. I still use FAT16 and split my 1TB drives into a bunch of 2GB mount points.[/sarcasm]

susuandme, when you first install the OS, it installs as a basic disk. When you install the OS, it asks you if you want FAT32 or NTFS. The file system and the disk type are two separate things. This day and age, you'll pretty much always go with NTFS and stick with basic disks. If you were to do software raid you'd use dynamic disks. Also, I know that DPM uses dynamic disks for its disk to disk backup storage.

NetAdmin2436

....another explanation.

Yeah, basic/dynamic disks are independent of encryption. You can encrypt files/folders on either dynamic or basic disk as long as it's NTFS 5.0 or later. Earlier versions of NTFS don't support EFS. NTFS can be installed on either dynamic or basic disks. It doesn't matter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS

For microsoft tests, Dynamic Disks are used when you want to create a software RAID or spanned array. Basic Disks vs Dynamic disks in XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314343

Encrypt file/folder in XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307877

In real life you'll be using basic disks most of the time and hardware RAID solutions. Hardware RAID's are generally considered more stable/reliable. So again, you'll be using basic disks with hardware raid solutions.

susuandme

Thankyou all for your help,

I understand the concept now. ric