During installation of Comodo Time Machine - CMT I get an error message which states that there maybe conflicts between CMT and TrueCrypt, also stating TrueCrypt must be uninstalled before completion of installation of CMT.
Is there any explanation regarding the conflict? If TrueCrypt is uninstalled, CMT installed and then followed by the re-installation of TrueCrypt, does a conflict now exist or only during CMT installation?
If conflicts always exist with TrueCrypt and CMT regardless of installation sequence, will CMT run in conjunction with Comodo’s Disk Encryption program without error or conflict?
I think I may understand where there may be possible opportunities for conflict between CTM and Encrypted files. After perusing Comodo’s CMT description and help file I would be interested in using the CMT application. It appears to be a very powerful utility to manage and preserve system software and personal data. CMT would be a great software addition to my system, unfortunately I would not be prepared to abandon my ability to have secure encrypted files.
Flykite, I appreciate your response, thank you. ASP
Are you running full encrypted disks or only a container ?
I think (not that CTM supports it now) but a container should be possible, full disk encryption not.
A container is just a big file that is encrypted on disk, CTM should be able to handle it, but if let’s say it’s a container of 4GB and you change a single bit in it CTM will mark this as 4GB of “changed” data…
Maybe an option for a new CTM release to “exclude” certain “files” like this?
Ronny, thanks for your reply.
I use encrypted containers (TrueCrypt refers to them as ‘volumes’).
TrueCrypt also has the ability to perform full drive encryption, the total hard drive with Operating System, all additional software, all user data and any unused drive space is encrypted and only accessible on start up with the user’s TrueCrypt password. Truly, securely bolted down. Is it in this mode of TrueCrypt’s application that CMT’s / TrueCrypt’s conflict arises?
My personal data is stored on a separate partition on my main drive and is backed up daily to a second hard drive as an encrypted volume. This encrypted volume is also copied to a USB Flash Drive. These backup volumes do not exceed 4gb.
I think what I may have to do is uninstall TrueCrypt, disconnect my backup hard drive, install CMT and test for results. If satisfied, I will then reinstall TrueCrypt and continue testing using a new TrueCrypt volume. Worse case, I will have multiple backups, I should be able to restore to my original configuration without any data loss.
If I determine that this ‘work around’ resolves my issue I will post a response with details to this thread.
I certainly endorse your suggestion that Comodo/CMT in a future release might consider the option to ‘exclude/include files’ which are monitored by CMT for changes. A monitoring option may address my TrueCrypt issue but might also be applied in many other situations where CMT user’s may have an unique requirement.
Again, your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
asp
Opps!! Sorry fellow users. Continually referring to Comodo’s Time Machine (CTM) as CMT, as I have in my past 2 postings, clearly demonstrates my lack of attention to detail or maybe my dyslexic infliction. I’ll edit more thoroughly before pressing .
asp
I use TC only with full disk encryption and that does not work with CTM.
You can’t use CTM and full disk encryption first because both products use a “bootloader” that’s located in the MBR (Master Boot Record) so one will overwrite the other rendering the program useless. And second because CTM stores it’s snapshots “outside” the visibility of windows which could interfere with TC and cause boot recovery to become useless because CTM can’t access the data because it’s encrypted.
IF you use the following setup it should not conflict:
CTM on your boot disk (mark Disk not Partition) all partitions on Boot disk should be TC free.
Have a TC volume on a second hard disk, and make sure CTM does not protect that disk.
That should work because TC and CTM can’t interfere here.
Ronny, thank you for your continued input.
I concur with your explanation of the conflict which would arise in the MBR between CT & CTM.
Your suggestion of making TrueCrypt resident on the secondary drive certainly has merit. At present all my TC Volumes are stored on a second hard drive in a partition reserved for my personal data backups. Uninstalling my existing TrueCrypt application from my primary drive and re-installing TC into this backup partition would isolate TC and might eliminate the opportunity for conflict.
I have also considered loading TrueCrypt Portable onto my flash drives and employing TC’s AutoRun feature. I would expect that TC Portable would resolve any conflicts. It would be a suitable solution for the backup data stored on flash drives and the portable TC app might also be used to access and maintain TrueCrypt Volumes which are not backup to flash drives but reside on my secondary drive data partition.
The one question which I have not yet resolved is, what level of control does a user have over what CTM will protect. Can a user select which drive(s) to protect? Can the user select individual partitions or is selection restricted to drives only? I assume, because of previous discussion, that selection of individual files at this time is not possible.
You have to think in disks here not in partitions.
I think you could chose to “not protect” a “D” partition but that will not change CTM’s behavior on that DISK it stores the data outside windows reach. So any other tool that also writes there without CTM’s knowledge could cause issues with snapshots.
I don’t think it’s a matter of where TC is installed, it’s what it’s encrypting that counts.
If you install on c:\program files\ and use a volume on an other unprotected disk there should be no issues.
Thank you for your input Ronny, I appreciate your advise.
I think that before I commit my system to CTM I’m going to watch and continue to read the ongoing posts to this site. I would like to get a better feel for the operation of CTM and sense of what other users have experienced. Unfortunately most postings do not reflect the opinion of users who have had a satisfactory experience, usually only users who are having difficulty. The resolution to their problems might guide me to better understanding of the suitability of CTM for my application.
I have exactly that configuration in Reply #8, but I cannot get CTM to install. I get the “an unsupported file system is detected” message. My laptop has 2 internal hard drives. HD 1 has XP x86 and 3 other partitions including one TrueCrypt partition. HD 2 has Vista x64 with 3 other NTFS partitions. Both drives have some minor unallocated and free space. When trying to install CTM from within Vista, I get that message. TC the program is installed in Vista, but there is no encrypted partition or container on the Vista hard drive. Any help would be appreciated.
There is a bug in CTM which can destroy the MBR if one have two system configuration. I would suggest to refrain installing CTM until the bug is fixed, if you have not enough skills to repair.
The installation order is important. You need to uninstall CTM, install TrueCrypt, install CTM.
But it is NOT recommended to run this configuration.
I’ll use portable TrueCrypt instead. It can be run side by side with CTM (if it is used to encrypt OTHER partition besides the CTM protected ones).
For portable TrueCrypt to work, the TrueCrypt driver still needs to be installed. I noticed this when I wanted to run portable TrueCrypt from USB Flash on a normal User account (not Administrator).
Well, I’ve used both Truecrypt portable and CTM for months…
Did you boot between installations? Seems that IF Truecrypt driver is not removed, the application is not fully uninstalled.
But why does CTM say Truecrypt is installed when I dismounted my J: TrueCrypt container drive?
I looked at resident memory and Truecrypt.exe is NOT running once I dismount my container. So CTM must be looking through my C:/Program Files folder and seeing Truecrypt folder and refusing to install?
So did anyone figure out yet if CTM will and can work if a person wants to load a TrueCrypt container once Windows has loaded?