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Encrypted container & upload question


fazza

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Hi, just started to use Clouddrive and am trying to get used to what it's capable of. I have a couple of questions to check my usage of the product and it's capabilities. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

First, I have created a 4tb cloud drive spanning multiple (9) providers and pulled together with DrivePool to create a single large volume. On this pooled cloud drive just created, I notice there is over 1gb of data to be uploaded - I presume this is some form of metadata required by Clouddrive, and is expected behaviour? If so that's fine, but I was expecting an empty drive to not need any uploading - it may be worth flagging this behaviour for bandwidth constrained users like myself.

 

Next, I would like to create a local encrypted drive using drivepool and clouddrive together. There will be a dedicated drivepool on which the encrypted volume will go. Once the volume is created by clouddrive (using local storage provider option), can I then remove the drive letter from the pooled drive and use only the clouddrive created drive letter?

 

Thanks in advance.

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Yup, NTFS metadata, as well as partitioning information, folder structure and other "hidden assets" on the drives are likely being uploaded. 

 

You mean storing an encrypted "drive"/container on the pool, and using that? 

 

 

If so ... that's a bit redundant, to be blunt.  Each CloudDrive disk supports encryption (enabled at the time of creation).  And that should be more than sufficient.   Additionally, you can then enable bitlocker on each of the drives, as StableBit DrivePool supports that, as well. 

 

 

So, unless I'm missing something, you're essentially trying to add significant complexity to your setup, where it's not strictly needed. 

 

 

 

That said, I'll have to double check, but I'm pretty sure that StableBit CloudDrive does want/need a drive letter for the local disk provider (and cache)

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Ok thankyou for the info.

 

I'm clearly going about this wrong! What I'm trying to achieve with the second setup is a single large local encrypted volume, essentially. I'd like it to be larger than any of my physical disks. From what you've said I need to either:

 

1) Skip clouddrive and enable bitlocker on the drives to create a single encrypted volume within drivepool

 

2) Use clouddrive to create local encrypted containers and then pool those within drivepool

 

Would either of these produce the result I'm after? 

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The first option would be the best.   I actually use this on my desktop system, and it works very well.  

 

The pool itself isn't encrypted "technically", but the data is encrypted, when stored on the drives.  It accomplishes what you want, without needing to overcomplicate things. 

 

 

 

 If it helps, if your motherboard supports a TPM module, you can buy and install that for cheap (they're usually around $20).  The reason for this is that it eliminates the need for a password or flash drive or anything, and the system is encrypted at rest.

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I would agree with Chris.  With Clouddrive's ability to only upload changed sectors really makes this a good solution if you want a VeraCrypt container on the cloud.  I've tried this in the past with Google Drive's desktop app and Truecrypt.  I ended up re-uploading the file over and over...or so it seemed way back when I was trying this.  So, I gave up on that for a while (at least until CloudDrive showed up!).

 

Love this piece of software / middleware!  I've off loaded all my most precious files (pictures of the kids, and other unique files that I would never be able to get back if my house were to burn down).  It would be nice to mirror my entire DrivePool...but I can not see dumping THAT much data over my shoe-string internet connection.  Funny thing to me, I used to think I was fast....but then again, I can still recall the tones used on 300baud modems up to 14.4kbaud!  Then the digital bongs of 56K (I skipped 28.8kbaud).

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Yeah, I know that a number of cloud provider clients would have issues with large files being changed a lot.... or even uploading all of it!

 

 

And totally understand about the internet speed stuff.   It's one of my biggest issues, as well.  60TB of data ... yeah, that's going to take a while.... even if I had good upload speeds. 

 

And yeah, I also remember dialup.  I don't miss the tones though. :P

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Well this has worked out really well. Experimented with 4 drives bitlocked and pooled to give a single local volume and this *just works*. The only slight pain is that I remove the drive letters from the individual drives which means that to unlock them I have to go into disk management and reassign a drive letter every time. Can't see a way round this without encrypting the system drive, and I don't want anything to auto-unlock so I've not done this.

 

The next part was inspired by ironhead's post above (thanks!) - I now have a large cloud drive which backs up portions of this local pool. Cloud backup with no monthly fee. The initial 'seeding' 2tb upload was done over a fast connection at work and I was worried about bandwidth once at home. However, since Clouddrive is only uploading changed parts, the backup process becomes completely manageable over that connection.

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Well, the first part, I have a solution for that.  I have the same issue on my systems .... so, I found this out a while ago.

 

If you mount the drive to a folder path (eg, C:\Pool\Drive#), you can still manage the drive in BitLocker without assigning a drive letter, and without having see the drive all the time.

 

http://wiki.covecube.com/StableBit_DrivePool_Q4822624

 

You still have to go into the management page for it, but it may help out here.

 

 

 

 

As for the auto-unlock, I do have this enabled on my system.  The system drive is encrypted, and I use a TPM module.  The thing is, even if the drives are automatically unlocked, this ONLY works on the system in question. If you pull the drives and put them into a new system, you need the password or recovery code to unlock the drive.  

 

Additionally, as long as all of the accounts are password protected, there is no way to break into the system (or at least, it becomes incredibly difficult).

And if your motherboard supports a TPM module, you can install and configure this, so you don't need a key or password for the system.

 

In fact, this works well enough that I've joked that if a friend could break into my system, that they could keep it.  And I have a few security admin friends.  I'm still typing on said computer. ;)

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Outstanding thanks Drashna. I had mounted the drives to folder paths already but did not realise this allowed me to use the bitlocker management page to unlock. That's a much much easier alternative. Greatly appreciate the info as always.

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