Still seeking......

.....some way to label encrypted drives with meaningful labels BEFORE
they're decrypted.
Has MSoft fixed this glaring omission yet?

On 12/10/2019 00.03, Peter Jason wrote:
....some way to label encrypted drives with meaningful labels BEFORE
they're decrypted.
Has MSoft fixed this glaring omission yet?

You could use the GPT partition table label. I do not know how to reach
it in Windows (I do in Linux).

--
Cheers, Carlos.

On 10/13/19 12:20 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 12/10/2019 00.03, Peter Jason wrote:
....some way to label encrypted drives with meaningful labels BEFORE
they're decrypted.
Has MSoft fixed this glaring omission yet?

You could use the GPT partition table label. I do not know how to reach
it in Windows (I do in Linux).


Boot off a Linux Live USB, run gparted

Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 12/10/2019 00.03, Peter Jason wrote:
....some way to label encrypted drives with meaningful labels BEFORE
they're decrypted.
Has MSoft fixed this glaring omission yet?

You could use the GPT partition table label. I do not know how to reach
it in Windows (I do in Linux).


In which case, you'd look at an article like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

56 (0x38) 72 bytes Partition name (36 UTF-16LE code units)

I think Windows may be putting "Basic Partition Table" in there.

Using gparted, I did a "Name Partition", which is different
than "Label". But it made no difference to Windows. The
partition is still unidentified in Disk Management when
not logged into Bitlocker yet.

And "sudo gdisk /dev/sda" won't give that sort of
information either. The "i" for detailed information,
didn't list the stuff I could see in "gparted".

I suppose I should have tried Windows "fsutil.exe", the builtin.

Nope, it's not interested.

Windows seems to be uniquely uninterested in what is in
the GPT table. (Making it feature-consistent with MSDOS
partitioning.) It's going to use the "LABEL". And the
LABEL is only available (it seems) when the volume is
mounted in Windows. If I use gparted in Linux, I
can see both (with the partitions nominally dismounted,
because gparted likes to do that). If I assign a "partition name"
and a "label" in gparted, to an unencrypted volume, I can
see both... but only in gparted.

Summary: Nope. Forget it :-/

Addendum: There are .vhd files which can be used as
containers and those can be encrypted. And...
the filename of the VHD would identify it.
You can mount VHDs by "attaching" them in
Disk Management, from the menu, and then they
function as disks. They can be stored on some
other partition (Data partition or C: partition).
I didn't test this (some fun for Peter).

Whether Peter will like the extra complexity, who knows.
If I were using such a container, I would do a "copy/paste"
and make a backup of the VHD while it was dismounted,
then open it for a days work. If the OS crashes while
the VHD is mounted, it could get messed up, in which
case you bring the copy of the VHD forward and use that
(losing a days work). I think I know of a way to crash
the OS while a VHD is mounted, so this is just a warning
to prepare yourself for it :-)

Paul

On 13/10/2019 19.57, Paul wrote:
Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 12/10/2019 00.03, Peter Jason wrote:
....some way to label encrypted drives with meaningful labels BEFORE
they're decrypted.
Has MSoft fixed this glaring omission yet?

You could use the GPT partition table label. I do not know how to reach
it in Windows (I do in Linux).


In which case, you'd look at an article like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Â*Â* 56 (0x38)Â*Â* 72 bytesÂ*Â* Partition name (36 UTF-16LE code units)

I think Windows may be putting "Basic Partition Table" in there.

Using gparted, I did a "Name Partition", which is different
than "Label". But it made no difference to Windows. The
partition is still unidentified in Disk Management when
not logged into Bitlocker yet.

And "sudo gdisk /dev/sda" won't give that sort of
information either. The "i" for detailed information,
didn't list the stuff I could see in "gparted".

I suppose I should have tried Windows "fsutil.exe", the builtin.

Nope, it's not interested.

Windows seems to be uniquely uninterested in what is in
the GPT table. (Making it feature-consistent with MSDOS
partitioning.) It's going to use the "LABEL". And the
LABEL is only available (it seems) when the volume is
mounted in Windows. If I use gparted in Linux, I
can see both (with the partitions nominally dismounted,
because gparted likes to do that). If I assign a "partition name"
and a "label" in gparted, to an unencrypted volume, I can
see both... but only in gparted.

I can mount partitions in fstab using any of both labels:

/etc/crypttab:

cr_my_book /dev/disk/by-partlabel/My_Book /Keys/keyfile auto

/etc/fstab:

/dev/mapper/cr_my_book /data/My_Book xfs \
user,lazytime,exec,nofail 1 2


That's an encrypted partition I reach by name before decrypting it, in
Linux.


--
Cheers, Carlos.

On Sun, 13 Oct 2019 13:57:07 -0400, Paul
wrote:

Carlos E.R. wrote:
On 12/10/2019 00.03, Peter Jason wrote:
....some way to label encrypted drives with meaningful labels BEFORE
they're decrypted.
Has MSoft fixed this glaring omission yet?

You could use the GPT partition table label. I do not know how to reach
it in Windows (I do in Linux).


In which case, you'd look at an article like this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

56 (0x38) 72 bytes Partition name (36 UTF-16LE code units)

I think Windows may be putting "Basic Partition Table" in there.

Using gparted, I did a "Name Partition", which is different
than "Label". But it made no difference to Windows. The
partition is still unidentified in Disk Management when
not logged into Bitlocker yet.

And "sudo gdisk /dev/sda" won't give that sort of
information either. The "i" for detailed information,
didn't list the stuff I could see in "gparted".

I suppose I should have tried Windows "fsutil.exe", the builtin.

Nope, it's not interested.

Windows seems to be uniquely uninterested in what is in
the GPT table. (Making it feature-consistent with MSDOS
partitioning.) It's going to use the "LABEL". And the
LABEL is only available (it seems) when the volume is
mounted in Windows. If I use gparted in Linux, I
can see both (with the partitions nominally dismounted,
because gparted likes to do that). If I assign a "partition name"
and a "label" in gparted, to an unencrypted volume, I can
see both... but only in gparted.

Summary: Nope. Forget it :-/

Addendum: There are .vhd files which can be used as
containers and those can be encrypted. And...
the filename of the VHD would identify it.
You can mount VHDs by "attaching" them in
Disk Management, from the menu, and then they
function as disks. They can be stored on some
other partition (Data partition or C: partition).
I didn't test this (some fun for Peter).

Whether Peter will like the extra complexity, who knows.
If I were using such a container, I would do a "copy/paste"
and make a backup of the VHD while it was dismounted,
then open it for a days work. If the OS crashes while
the VHD is mounted, it could get messed up, in which
case you bring the copy of the VHD forward and use that
(losing a days work). I think I know of a way to crash
the OS while a VHD is mounted, so this is just a warning
to prepare yourself for it :-)

Paul

Thanks Paul. I will just label the HDDs & record the letters in File
Explorer. These will be the same if I keep all the USB drives in the
same USB sockets.