Tech – Linux

Tutorial – How to save an image file from within Clonezilla to a VeraCrypt encrypted volume.

UPDATE: A new version (Revision #: 1.1,  Revision Date: 06-05-2015.  Filename: clonezilla_using_veracrypt_ver_1.1.doc) has been uploaded.  There were a couple of minor changes as noted in the document.

I have been using Clonezilla for a long time now to make image backups of computers for either disaster recovery or to clone hard disks that I am replacing or upgrading.  I store those images onto an external usb drive, where I also store my Nexus 4 Nandroid backups, backups of this web site done through cpanel and the UpdraftPlus plugin, as well as several other files.  However, it had always bothered me that someone could easily steal the drive by putting it  into their pocket, so I figured it was time to encrypt the drive.

I have also been using TrueCrypt for a while, a powerful encryption tool.  However, support for the software recently ended and several security issues have since been discovered.  There is ongoing work on fixing these security issues by the Open Crypto Audit Project.  As far as the software program itself, there are two main projects working on incorporating these security fixes.  One is CipherShed and the other is VeraCrypt, the only one at the moment with a working product being VeraCrypt.

The problem however is how to store the image backup that Clonezilla creates into the encrypted drive.  At first I re-partitioned the drive into two partitions,  a smaller un-encrypted partition and a larger encrypted partition.  I would store the Clonezilla image backup to the un-encrypted partition and when Clonezilla completed I would reboot the computer into Windows to un-encrypt the encrypted partition and move the file over.  This was adding a real lot of extra time for two reasons, first from the copying of the file and secondly having to securely wipe the un-encrypted partition after the move.

So, I came up with a way to un-encrypt the partition (while still in the middle of running the Clonezilla Live CD) so that the image file could be directly stored into that previously encrypted partition.  The tutorial is located here:

Clonezilla_using_VeraCrypt_Instructions