Member Avatar for lewashby

Linux Mint (Ubuntu).

I'm looking for a way to encrypt some of my external HDDs. I was looking this option over -> https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/encrypt-your-data-with-encfs-on-ubuntu/ but I'm not sure how well this would work. I read this on the top portion of the site -> "It is a pass-through filesystem, not an encrypted block device, which means it is created on top of an existing filesystem." What exactly does that mean. I also noticed that the encfs program (encfs) mounts to the encrypted/decrypted directories and since I will be having to mount an external HDD it looks to me like I would have a standard mount to the external HDD to my encrypted direcotry and then another mount from encfs to the same directory. Will that even work? Or, does anyone of any other suugestions or recomendations? Thanks.

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Quick summary (for and others): EncFS is a FUSE "pass‑through" filesystem — it stores encrypted files inside a normal directory (the "source") and presents a decrypted view at a separate mountpoint. That is, you mount the external disk first, then run EncFS on a folder on that disk to create the decrypted mount. This layered (device mount + EncFS mount) is normal and expected. (en.wikipedia.org)

Practical example (mount order):

# mount the raw device (if not automounted)
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/external

# create a mountpoint for the decrypted view and mount with encfs
mkdir -p ~/secure
encfs /media/external/encrypted ~/secure

# when finished
fusermount -u ~/secure
sudo umount /media/external

Security note and alternatives: EncFS had a paid audit that found design issues (snapshot/metadata weaknesses) and the project is no longer the recommended default for new, high-threat deployments. If file-level (per-file) encryption is needed but metadata protection and stronger design are important, consider gocryptfs (successor, audited) or CryFS (designed to hide filenames/sizes/directory structure). For full-drive or partition encryption (best for external HDDs), use LUKS/dm-crypt (cryptsetup) — it encrypts at the block level and hides filesystem metadata. (en.wikipedia.org)

Quick LUKS workflow (high level):

sudo cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sdb1
sudo cryptsetup open /dev/sdb1 securedrive
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/securedrive
sudo mount /dev/mapper/securedrive /mnt/secure

For cross‑platform volumes (Windows/macOS/Linux), VeraCrypt is a widely used option. Always back up data before formatting/encrypting, choose the filesystem for the OS mix you need (NTFS for Windows compatibility), and always dismount before unplugging. If formatting seems to hang, check lsblk and dmesg for errors. (documentation.ubuntu.com)

Notes on earlier replies: pointed to third‑party tools; useful as context. 's Macrium Reflect is Windows‑centric, so for Linux imaging use tools like Clonezilla or dd when needed.

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Member Avatar for rubberman

commented: !] +11
Member Avatar for lewashby

Thanks, I'm also trying gnome-disks but it's taking forever to format my extern so I'm sure it's even working. I'll check that out. Thanks again.

Member Avatar for Reverend Jim

Macrium Reflect (free) has a disk clone option.

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