Moving from 32GB USB 2.0 thumbdrives to 64GB USB 3.0 drives. Purchased a SanDisk Extreme 64GB as a test - and thus far it is failing miserably. I did some searches here and while there are a few interesting “work arounds” none address the exact issue I have. Here is what I have created before and am trying to recreate on the larger USB 3.0 platform:
- Creating about 20 of these to share with a group of users.
- Solution must work on Windows 7, Windows 8, Mac Mountain Lion, various Linux flavors.
- Thumbdrive with two partitions.
- First partition is 5GB. Second partition is remainder of the the drive.
- Both partitions are primary partitions.
- Neither partition is bootable.
- First partition contains “public” files, including software for all platforms to encrypt/decrypt.
- Second partition is entirely encrypted.
- For compatibility reasons with our enterprise FDE solution the concept of using TrueCrypt with the encrypted file container is not viable. There is no recovery key in the case of a terminated employee, etc. (Enterprise admin’s will understand this need immediately)
The goal here is to be able to place encrypted files in the second partition, share the drives amoung anyone in the user group regardless of platform they are using, include the software they need for their platform in the clear.
The methods I have read include things like “Windows 8 Enterprise allows Windows on the Go on thumb drives” (not applicable here) and “You can add a driver/filter” (works great on Windows and a single machine - not applicable here), etc.
The Lexar solution, BootIt, works on our old USB 2.0 drives - essentially flipping the “removable bit” to “fixed disk” and hence all computers see it as a fixed disk. This utility does not seem to work on the SanDisk drives. The SanDisk Extreme’s were chosen due to performance and cost reasons so the first choice is to get this to work. Otherwise need to go to a different brand.
Anyone find a solution to this?
