I'm interested in keeping a diary file (probably plain text) in a hidden truecrypt file on my computer (Windows Vista) and would like any ATer's opinion as to how to keep it from being saved to the computer in an unencrypted state (i.e.: to the page file). If I keep it on a USB stick and read/edit it, is there a way to prevent this? The file will be very sensitive (to me at least) and I'd like to be certain that no-one can ever read it (e.g.: computer tech relative, repair man, or if someone steals the computer).
If there's another way to do this that you know of, I'd love to hear it (and thanks in advance!) :-)
Only way to be sure is to encrypt the whole drive.
For one, you could just disable the pagefile.
Vista also has a setting to encrypt the pagefile with a random key generated on each startup.
http://www.technipages.com/vista-encrypt-the-pagefile.htmlAlso keep in mind, if you use Hybrid Sleep mode (the default sleep state in Vista) or Hibernation, the entire contents of RAM are copied to the hibernation file (hiberfil.sys).
This file can't be encrypted on its own due to the need to be able to recover from it from a powered-off state.
You'll either want to disable hibernation entirely (which will disable Hybrid Sleep, leaving only Suspend-to-RAM available) or go ahead and setup Bitlocker or 3rd-party system volume encryption.