• How strong is the protection provided by StrongDisk Pro?
  
  
• Where is the password to the protected disk stored?
  
  
• Do files on protected disks remain open if power fails when working with a mounted protected disk?
  
  
• Is it possible to recover information from a protected disk if the password is forgotten or the external key is lost or destroyed?
  
  
• Is it possible to mount a protected disk on a computer other than the one where it was created?
  
  
• Is it possible to use a protected disk that has been created under Windows 95/98 under Windows NT/2000 and vise-versa?
  
  
• Why can not I access (directly from a CD-ROM) a disk that was created under Windows NT/2000, and whose disk image file was written to a CD-ROM?
  
  
• Why the documents from the Startup folder of the protected disk are not opened when it is mounted even if the "Autostart programs on mounting protected disk" checkbox is checked?
  
  
• How can I write the file with the external key to a CD-ROM?
  
  
• Why do I get a message that there is not enough free space when creating a protected disk although StrongDisk reports that there is enough free place?
  
  
• Is it possible to increase the size of a protected disk when it is filled with data?
  
  
• Why can not I select a protected disk to store the MS SQL data base files on it?
  
  

A. Encryption algorithms that are used in the StrongDisk Pro were tested for a long time and were approved all around the world. Breaking these algorithms requires at least months and many millions of dollars. The most dangerous are data leakages and bad passwords when used without external keys. Because of this, StrongDisk Pro provides measures to reduce leakage risk almost to zero and gives recommendations on choosing good passwords.

A. T he password to the protected disk is stored nowhere.

A. No. Encryption is done "on-the-fly", i.e. StrongDisk does not store unencrypted data when a disk is mounted. Data are decrypted only when read, and they are not written to disk unencrypted. However, there is a certain risk that some of data are written to the Windows swap file, so we recommend you to avoid such situations.

A. No. The developers of the StrongDisk system do not have any means to access the encrypted data without the required password or external key.

A. Yes. If the StrongDisk system is installed on the second computer and its user possesses the required password and/or the external key, he is possible to mount a protected disk that was created by someone else. This can be used, for example, when sending data by e-mail inside protected disk image files.

A. Yes.

A. If the protected disk contains the NTFS file system, it is really impossible. The point is that when accessing an NTFS disk Windows tries to write some service information to the disk even if you want just to read information from it. Of course, writing to a CD-ROM is impossible. There is no such problem if the protected disk was created with FAT file system.

A. Why the documents from the Startup folder of the protected disk are not opened when it is mounted even if the "Autostart programs on mounting protected disk" checkbox is checked?

A. You need a device that allows not only reading but also writing to CD-ROMs. During recording you will probably have to temporarily write the file with the external key to the hard disk. In this case it is necessary to delete it after recording the CD-ROM with the utility for safe data deletion.

A. f the logical disk where the would-be created protected disk image file is to reside uses the FAT32 file system (it is used in the most systems with Windows95/98), then the reported information about the availability of the free space can be wrong since it is not always up-to-date. To find out the real amount of free space on a disk you can launch an application to check the disk for errors. Try to empty the "Recycle bin" to free some space.

A. No. In this case you can create a new protected disk of a larger size and copy all the data to it.

A. Protected disks are treated by the system as "removable" ones. Some applications like MS SQL "want" to work only with usual disks. Nevertheless, this problem can be easily by-passed by manual entering the path to the data base files without using the standard path selection dialog that just does not show the protected disks.