Portability of knox

bandlc4

How can you encrypt a flash drive on a desktop Mac and then open it on a Mac laptop? I assume both machines need the app on them, but is Knox opening the flashdrive only and does not need a backup to work from? Can you install knox on a flashdrive along with the encrypted file and open it that way?



Confused.

jpgoldberg

Hi bandlc4,



Welcome to the forums!



A Knox vault can be opened on a Mac even if that Mac doesn't have Knox installed. This is because Knox give you the ability to create encrypted sparesbundles and encrypted disk images that can be opened (with the password) on Mac OS X. Knox basically gives you easy access to certain encryption and security tools that are built in to Mac OS X.



In a sense, Knox is allowing you to unleash some of the latent security capabilities that are present (though otherwise hard to use) in OS X.



I hope that this clears up some of the confusion. And thank you for your question, please feel free to ask more and participate in the forums.



Welcome!

bandlc4

I guess I am still confused. At the present time, I have a "key Drive" file containg all my needed files on the flash drive AND a sparse image. Neither show to be an alias.



Do I need both?



In my HD Doc file there is an empty Knox file. This, as I remember should contain the sparse image.



If I move the sparse image from the flash drive to the Doc file on my HD can I still open my secure file on the flash drive on any Mac?



If I change these files while I have the flash drive open on my laptop, how does the sparse file on my HD know to change?



Do I need to back up my secure file on each Mac?



I am really confused and hope I haven't confused you in my composition of this reply.



Thanks

MartyS

[quote name='bandlc4']I guess I am still confused. At the present time, I have a "key Drive" file containg all my needed files on the flash drive AND a sparse image. Neither show to be an alias.



Do I need both?[/QUOTE]



I don't know for certain what you mean, but it's up to you if you want to have some files on a USB "stick", "flash drive" or "key Drive" that are unencrypted and also have one or more Knox vault on the same mini-drive. Knox can help you "take over" the entire drive, but only files/folders located inside the vault will be encrypted.



[QUOTE]In my HD Doc file there is an empty Knox file. This, as I remember should contain the sparse image.[/QUOTE]



The ~/Documents/Knox folder is the default folder to store new Knox vaults. This default can be changed in the Knox > Preferences > General pane. If you create a vault in a non-default location there shouldn't be a anything in this area to correspond with it. My vaults are all on a separate partition for example and I don't even have a ~/Documents/Knox folder.



[QUOTE]If I move the sparse image from the flash drive to the Doc file on my HD can I still open my secure file on the flash drive on any Mac?[/QUOTE]



That's one of the beauties of vaults: their location doesn't really matter (although Knox needs to know where they are for effective use of its UI). As long as you are using at least OS X 10.4 for disk images and 10.5 for sparse bundles you can mount the vault on another Mac.



[QUOTE]If I change these files while I have the flash drive open on my laptop, how does the sparse file on my HD know to change?[/QUOTE]



Based only on what you've told us, it sounds like you should only keep one copy of the vault: on your flash drive and always open it from there no matter which Mac you're using. Is that perhaps a little more complicated? Perhaps... but it provides a consistent method of access no matter which Mac you're on and insures there is only one version of the document(s).



[QUOTE]Do I need to back up my secure file on each Mac?[/QUOTE]



Backups are always recommended. That's one reason Knox provides for that facility.



[QUOTE]I am really confused and hope I haven't confused you in my composition of this reply.[/QUOTE]



I hope this explanation helps! Please let us know.

bandlc4

Thank you. That explains it very well. As an aside, I tried to use Dropbox as a storage for my Doc>Knox file but it seemed to take forever to upload 5 or 6 Gigs and every time I changed a file it had to go through the whole routine again. It was probably due to the encryption from Knox. Thanks gain.

MartyS

[quote name='bandlc4']Thank you. That explains it very well. As an aside, I tried to use Dropbox as a storage for my Doc>Knox file but it seemed to take forever to upload 5 or 6 Gigs and every time I changed a file it had to go through the whole routine again. It was probably due to the encryption from Knox. Thanks gain.[/QUOTE]



The "extra" transfers weren't because of the encryption. Remember, an encrypted file is still just a series of bits. Services like Dropbox are generalized so they cannot really take advantage of only copying the modified "bands" of a sparse bundle file like a Knox vault, instead they see the file as changed and must transfer it completely. That's one of the reasons we recommend Dropbox not be the location of your "live" vaults (because of the frequent changes) but is better suited for Knox vault backups since those happen much less frequently.