USB Drive Security

I carry my 1GB USB Thumb Drive with me everywhere I go and I store some stuff on there that I wouldn't want anyone to get a hold of (Quicken backup & KeePass mainly). So this was the perfect opportunity to try out TrueCrypt 5.0a.

First, I did a full device encryption. I quickly found out that this wouldn't work for me, since in order to mount the device TrueCrypt has to be installed on the computer. I reformatted and then went the "Traveler" route. I used the version of TrueCrypt installed on my desktop to create a standard volume on my USB Drive. I went with a size of 950 MB, leaving roughly 32 MB for the "Traveler" install. After the volume was done, I went to Tools -> Traveler Disk Setup (on TrueCrypt's menu). I picked the root of my USB Drive as the create location and unchecked "Include Volume Creation..." since I had already created the volume. I also setup AutoRun to mount the volume I just created. Now, all I have to do is plug the Thumb Drive in, enter the password, and it's ready to go. And I don't have to worry about someone getting my sensitive data since they won't know my "secure" password to mount the drive.

NOTE: The "Traveler" install took up less than 1.5 MB on my thumb drive