Arch Linux

SovietBear

Member

Registered: 2015-07-30

Posts: 8

Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

I know I should've encrypted my drive during installation but I didn't. I'd like to now, but I don't know if it'd just be easier to save some of my config files and reinstall. I also only used two partitions. A swap, and a main partition containing the rest of the disk, would I need a seperate /boot partition to do this? If so can that be done after installation?

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

Yes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm … filesystem.

would I need a seperate /boot partition to do this? If so can that be done after installation?

Depends. Is this a UEFI system or legacy BIOS? What boot loader do you use?

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ugjka

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-04-01

Posts: 1,806

Website

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

https://www.johannes-bauer.com/linux/luksipc/

Edit: fsckd has a better solution

Last edited by ugjka (2017-11-08 16:07:44)

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SovietBear

Member

Registered: 2015-07-30

Posts: 8

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

Yes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm … filesystem.

would I need a seperate /boot partition to do this? If so can that be done after installation?

Depends. Is this a UEFI system or legacy BIOS? What boot loader do you use?

Sorry, I should've mentioned that I use a Legacy BIOS system with Grub.

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

Yes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm … filesystem.

would I need a seperate /boot partition to do this? If so can that be done after installation?

Depends. Is this a UEFI system or legacy BIOS? What boot loader do you use?

Sorry, I should've mentioned that I use a Legacy BIOS system with Grub.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … _partition

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SovietBear

Member

Registered: 2015-07-30

Posts: 8

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

Yes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm … filesystem.

Depends. Is this a UEFI system or legacy BIOS? What boot loader do you use?

Sorry, I should've mentioned that I use a Legacy BIOS system with Grub.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … _partition

So I would have to create a boot partition. Alright, thanks man!

cfr

Member

From: Cymru

Registered: 2011-11-27

Posts: 7,132

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

Yes https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm … filesystem.

Note that if you use this, you should right random data to the unused space before encrypting. Normally, you'd write random data to the entire disk or device prior to setting everything up.

Note that you should also encrypt your swap partition else everything there will be available unecrypted regardless.

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SovietBear

Member

Registered: 2015-07-30

Posts: 8

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

It doesn't matter much last anymore because last night i messed up, and accidentally rewrote over the whole partition because I'm a dofus. Sorry for wasting your time like that, but at least I learned to back my stuff up. Reinstalled with encryption, time to rice again. Sorry guys. Thanks for the help anyways.

javamarket

Member

Registered: 2017-01-31

Posts: 9

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

It doesn't matter much last anymore because last night i messed up, and accidentally rewrote over the whole partition because I'm a dofus. Sorry for wasting your time like that, but at least I learned to back my stuff up. Reinstalled with encryption, time to rice again. Sorry guys. Thanks for the help anyways.

Few things teach us lessons as events such as these. I don't think anyone here would consider "time wasted" a fair descriptor. No need for apologies, if anything everyone comes away a winner here with someone knowing just a bit more. ~ my unsolicited 2 cents

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Is it possible to encrypt drive after installation?

Sorry, I should've mentioned that I use a Legacy BIOS system with Grub.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … _partition

So I would have to create a boot partition. Alright, thanks man!

No, that section says grub can read an encrypted partition and tells how to configure grub to.

It doesn't matter much last anymore because last night i messed up, and accidentally rewrote over the whole partition because I'm a dofus. Sorry for wasting your time like that, but at least I learned to back my stuff up. Reinstalled with encryption, time to rice again. Sorry guys. Thanks for the help anyways.

Few things teach us lessons as events such as these. I don't think anyone here would consider "time wasted" a fair descriptor. No need for apologies, if anything everyone comes away a winner here with someone knowing just a bit more. ~ my unsolicited 2 cents

Quoted for truth. I also learned a few things from this thread.

SovietBear, if you feel like marking this thread as solved, you can do so. I hope you didn't lose any data. Sorry for not mentioning backups at the start.

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