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Old 01-19-2010, 02:29 PM
nephdoc nephdoc is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Bitterroot Valley, MT
Posts: 13
Question sparse images, sparse bundle images, and encryption

Last weekend, I lost a hard drive that contained two things:
  1. my SuperDuper automated backup of my boot volume
  2. a separate partition containing a password protected and encrypted sparse bundle image volume that I use for storing confidential stuff (HIPAA compliance issues on my laptop one reason for doing this).

In recovering from this, I've done some reading about sparse images and sparse bundle images that I should have done much earlier, prompting some questions about how they're handled by SuperDuper:

If a sparse bundle image is encrypted, does the encryption make it impossible for SuperDuper to back it up incrementally and restore it incrementally; i.e., do the 8 MB "stripes" get hidden or changed by the encryption in such a way that the sparse bundle loses its value as opposed to a simpler sparse image?

Just where is the password for a sparse image or encrypted sparse bundle image stored? In my keychain? In the image itself? I'm wondering what happens if I need to restore an encrypted sparse image to a new destination.

Lastly, does the password protection prevent or hinder SuperDuper backing up a sparse bundle image?

Thanks so much,

Jim Robertson
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