Yale Software Library http://www.yale.edu/its/software/ For assistance contact the ITS Help Desk 203-432-9000, helpdesk@yale.edu Creating Virtual Disks - PGP Desktop (Macintosh) Virtual Disks are encrypted container files that behave like hard drives. They are especially useful when you need to protect a large group of files, but you don't want to encrypt the entire drive that they are stored on (i.e., a portable drive that is used on computers without PGP). NOTE: Password recovery is not available for virtual disks. If you lose or forget the password associated with the disk, then all files contained within will be lost. Creating a virtual disk 1. Open PGP Desktop. 2. Click the PGP Disk item in the left pane. 3. In the main screen, click New PGP Virtual Disk. Alternatively, from File menu, select New > PGP Virtual Disk. Last modified 16-Nov-10 (jj) Page 1 of 6
In the Maximum size field, type the amount of space that you want to reserve for the new PGP Virtual Disk. Use whole numbers, with no decimal places. Select the Create a dynamic PGP Disk (resizable) checkbox if you want PGP Desktop to manage the size of the new PGP Virtual Disk automatically. As you add or delete files, the disk size changes appropriately. Note: You can only select the Automatically resize PGP Virtual Disk as necessary option when you are creating a PGP Virtual Disk. Once the disk is created, you can neither change a PGP Virtual Disk from a fixed disk to a resizable one, or vice-versa. Specify the type of account that you want to create for the primary user of this PGP Virtual Disk: Public key: If you want to protect your PGP Virtual Disk with your keypair, select Public Key. Passphrase user: If you want to protect your PGP Virtual Disk with a passphrase, select Passphrase. If you want to view or change the advanced options settings, select the Advanced Options checkbox. Note: The default Advance Options settings are appropriate for most users. Avoid changing these settings if you are unfamiliar with them. From the Cipher menu, ensure that AES-256 (256 bits) is selected as the encryption. From the Format menu; select the disk format that you would like to use with your PGP Virtual Disk: MS-DOS. Use if you intend to share this PGP Virtual Disk with someone using PGP Desktop 9.5 for Windows. MacOS Extended. The default format (also the modern Mac OS file-system format); supports large PGP Virtual Disk volumes. The minimum size is 4 MB. The Mac OS Extended format is also called HFS+. MacOS Extended (Journaled). Use if Journaling is enabled on your system. (Journaling causes a copy of everything written to disk to be written a second time in a private area of the filesystem, making disk Last modified 16-Nov-10 (jj) Page 2 of 6
recovery easier if necessary.) MacOS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled). Use if case-sensitive Journaling is enabled on your system. MacOS Standard. Use for backwards compatibility with older MacOS operating systems. The minimum size is 512 KB. UNIX File System. Use if you intend to share this PGP Virtual Disk volume with someone using a UNIX file system. The minimum size is 128 KB You can see format of an existing MacOS X drive by selecting the drive, then selecting Get Info from the File menu. Click Continue. The next step depends on whether you chose to have your primary user authenticate to the PGP Virtual Disk you are creating using a public key or a passphrase. If you chose public key access, the Select a Public Key to Secure Your PGP Disk screen appears, displaying the public keys you can use for authenticating to the PGP Virtual Disk that you are creating. Select a key from the list, then click Continue. If you chose passphrase, enter the name that you would like to assign as the primary PGP Virtual Disk user (or administrator). Then enter and confirm a passphrase. Click Continue. Last modified 16-Nov-10 (jj) Page 3 of 6
Select a file name and location for the PGP Virtual Disk, then click Save. Review the information on the PGP Disk Creation Summary screen. When you are finished, click Create. The process is complete. The PGP Virtual Disk is created and mounted. It appears in a Finder window, as well as the PGP Desktop left panel. Last modified 16-Nov-10 (jj) Page 4 of 6
Click Finish. The process is complete. The PGP Virtual Disk is created and mounted. It appears in a Finder window, as well as the PGP Desktop left panel. Last modified 16-Nov-10 (jj) Page 5 of 6
Mounting a PGP Disk Volume When you create a new PGP Disk volume, it is automatically mounted so you can begin using it to store your files. When you are ready to secure the contents of the volume, you must unmount it. Once a volume is unmounted, its contents remain secured in an encrypted file where it is inaccessible until the volume is once again mounted. There are several ways to mount a PGP Disk volume: On the Disk Properties screen for a PGP Disk, enable Mount at login. The PGP Disk will automatically mount at startup. Select the PGP Disk you want to mount under the PGP Disk item, then select Disk > Mount. Click the Mount icon on the Toolbar. In the Finder, Ctrl-click the PGP Disk volume file, then select PGP --> Mount. Mounted PGP Disk volumes appear as drives in the Finder. Unmounting a PGP Disk Volume You lock a PGP Virtual Disk by unmounting it. There are several ways to unmount a PGP Disk volume: Select the PGP Disk you want to mount under the PGP Disk item, then select Disk > Unmount. Click the Mount icon on the Toolbar. In the Finder, Ctrl-click the PGP Disk volume file, then select PGP > Unmount. Drag the icon of the mounted PGP Disk volume to the Trash icon. Once a PGP Disk volume is unmounted, its contents are locked in the encrypted file associated with the volume. The contents of the volume are stored in the encrypted file and its contents remain inaccessible until the volume is once again mounted. Last modified 16-Nov-10 (jj) Page 6 of 6