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-   -   SuperDuper Backup of AES 128 Encrypted Disk Image (https://www.shirt-pocket.com/forums/showthread.php?t=411)

rwg4 05-29-2005 11:56 PM

SuperDuper Backup of AES 128 Encrypted Disk Image
 
Hi,

First I want to say SuperDuper is a fantastic product keep up the good work!

I have been using SuperDuper to Backup my Mac HD with 2 External Firewire Drives (1 on 1 offsite). I am using the Smartupdate feature and it works great. I have just created a disk image to secure some files with OS x's disk utility. I am using the AES 128 encryption. I am very new to this so bear with me. I have placed the disk image in my "user" folder. When I "unlock" the disk image, the disk image gets placed on my desktop. Then I can access all of the files. When I eject the disk image, it "locks" up and goes back to my "user" folder. I'm assuming that when the disk image is "locked up" in my user folder that it is fully encrypted. And when it is open and on my desktop it is not encrypted.

1) My main question is, how do I use SuperDuper to backup the disk image as well as my main HD?

2) If I leave the disk image locked in my "user" folder and backup my Mac HD, will the disk image be backed up? Or is it considered a separate drive? The "copy from screen" in SuperDuper does show the disk image as a separate drive from the Mac HD. So I'm assuming I would have to make 2 backups, 1 for the Mac HD and 1 for the disk image.

3) If I leave the disk image locked. Will SuperDuper copy the encrypted files? Is this a good or bad way to backup?

4) I opened the disk image and SuperDuper shows the opened disk image in the copy from box. I'm assuming if the disk image is unlocked, superduper would backup the files when they aren't encrypted.

5) Would it be better to backup the disk image in an encrypted or unencrypted state? Obviously if it were encrypted it would be secure on the backup media. But would it be stable and safe?

Sorry for all of the questions. Thanks for any and all help.

dnanian 05-30-2005 12:27 PM

There are a lot of questions there, but the answer is quite simple: the disk image itself is just a file like any other. The fact that it represents a disk image, or that its data is encrypted, doesn't really matter.

When you back up your user files, the disk image will be backed up as well. So, there's no need to do anything special -- I'd just endeavor to ensure that the image is unmounted and closed when you do your main backup.

If you were to try to back it up as a disk "drive", which you can do if you mount it and use it as a source, the result won't be encrpyted, which basically misses the point, so don't do that.

Make sense?

tedpearlman 11-30-2005 08:18 AM

Follow Up, this time with Knox
 
I have a similar question. I'm using Knox to maintain a couple of file vaults. When these encrypted vaults are open they appear as disk images. I have stored some key repositories of data in these vaults. For instance, I store the database for an organizational application. So, my question:

If the vault mentioned above is open and mounted and the organizational application that stores its database on that image is running and I backup using SuperDuper, what will be backed up? Will Super Duper just back up the vault FILE, which I assume would be still in the state it was PRIOR to it being mounted, rather than the current contents of that vault in open/unencrypted form?

Basically, if I backup with Super Duper in that scenario and my hard drive dies 5 minutes after the backup is complete, and I need to restore, what will I be left with, in terms of that vault, when I restore?

Thanks,

Ted

dnanian 11-30-2005 10:28 AM

As long as the file system does a decent job flushing things to disk, it'll likely be OK. But, what I'd suggest trying it. Mount a vault, do some stuff, back up, then copy the vault sparse image from the backup and mount it (w/ a different name, clearly) to see what you get!


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