ADATA Dash Drive HD 710

I've got Windows 7 Home premium 64-Bit.
But can you tell me how this encryption is to be done, step by step. Because i have not yet done the purchase, and so i can get the idea if it is a safe option to go the Truecrypt way or try finding some other product.
Actually what i REALLY wanted was some security so that no one can just plug and transfer any backed up files.
So i wanted to know whether ''Encryption'' and ''password protection'' is the same thing.
Thanks for your help.

Once you turn-ON encryption you effective tell it where to be stored and thus whenever is data tasked to be stored it routed to that folder or drive as you set it up. This is all explained once you start the whole process and of course start the "key" you've entered to be the key you generated to retrieve/store data. Once all that is done, the data becomes encrypted on the fly as it were. Beware, this process slow down things abit or gets bogged down a bit, because its an extra step now in placed.

Your security is assured if you go this route, but to have a whole HD for this task suggests you got a lot of data to be store. In most cases, data would be small amounts but then I don't what you plan to store as data. I hope this helps, but again the Truecrypt website should explain all this if AI lack detail here.

tada -----Willy

For keeping an unencrypted backup i need another external HDD right?
Or is there some better way?
And what is this ''key'' Willy said about? Can't we have a standard password protected drive?

To keep us in a "state of backup" we need no less than 3 copies on 3 devices or media. Encrypting content and especially our last copy is a fine way to learn first hand why folk write so much about backup.

Over the years I've come to realize that many will have to learn backup first hand.
Bob

PS. We only lose what we don't backup.

Yes, i got it( the backing up plan ).
By the way i wanted to know how is Windows 7's built in backup software different from what we backup manually( i.e, by copy and paste what we want to keep rather than everything stored on the laptop ).
2) Can we access the auto backup done from another computer or the one it was backed up from(if there is something wrong with the PC and it needs to be restored) without restoring the backup files itself?
That is can we simply open a backup file to view what is in it (when win 7 backup utility is used)?
Thanks Bob.

Microsoft has done strange things like not support it in the next OS so your backups are in some strange proprietary fortress. Yes we can get in but at what cost?

2. Absolutely.
Use any of the sync apps which place such in plain copies and schedule it either with the app (Syncback and Goldsync for example) or use Windows own scheduler.

3. I found that I can't just open and view a Windows 7 backup from other OSes. No sale here.
Bob

Now you said that Microsoft does not have the same kind of backup software in Windows 8, but i still use 7. So, first of all i wanted to know
1) Does the auto built in backup software save a copy of our installed software too?
2) If there is such a thing then will restoring it later work (in win 7). Will the software run as before?
I am not interested in win 8 as of now (related to backup). Anyway windows 8 works completely different, with the support for "apps". That must be the reason for them to drop the similar backup software.

Appreciate your help Bob.

2. No.
3. The office is onboard with 8 now. We installed Classic Shell and are moving on.

Why anyone would use Microsoft's backup system is a mystery. Look at your questions and see why I would not.
Bob

What i wanted to make sure was that if at all something goes wrong with my OS, i should not lose the various software i have got too. For example my Antivirus itself, which has to be updated from the START if me OS crashes. And that takes a lot of time. It is actually the cumulative updates of the last 3 years.
And apart from the antivirus there are other good software which even though i got from the internet, can be difficult to get back sometimes (the one's which are paid and at times the free ones too!).

But now i know the answer
Thanks for your help regarding the issue.

The update took just a few minutes longer than a short update.

And since MSFT's backup may or may not restore to a blank HDD I'm unsure why so many posts to arrive here with the answer. Still no.
Bob