Questions about Bootable USB

[doubledee]

Well, it looks like I was able to create my first-ever Encrypted Bootable USB drive!!

But I have some questions about what I just did...

1.) After booting up from my USB Drive (Power + Option), if I go under Apple > About This Mac it says...

Startup Disk: MBP Factory 2013-07-07

That looks good!


But if I open under Finder, under Devices, I only see this..

Debbie's MacBookPro
MacIntosh HD

Why don't I see my Bootable USB Drive under "Devices"??


2.) When I boot up from my Bootable USB Drive, why am I able to actually *use* the computer?

That is, I was under the impression that everything would be "Read-Only", and so while I could boot up and maybe clone a new HDD, that I would NOT be able to do things like work on documents?

I thought the whole idea of creating a "clone" on my Bootable USB drive is that it could not be changed?


3.) Related to #1, if I go into Apple > About This Mac where could I see that I am indeed booted up from my USB Drive vs. the Internal HDD?


4.) If I boot up from my Bootable USB Drive, then I guess I'm sorta confused why I can see the internal "MacIntosh HD".

I suppose this relates to my confusion in #1.


5.) How can I get 110% reassurance that my Bootable USB Drive is indeed encrypted??

(It would be a bummer to have went to all of this trouble, only to find out that I have a USB Drive laying around that someone could hack into...)


6.) When I boot up from the Internal HDD, if I go under Apple > About This Mac it does NOT say anything about what the "Startup Disk" is...

So how do I get some confirmation from what HDD I have booted to??

Sincerely,


Debbie

 

[Dalton63841]

Regarding #2, when you boot into a read only filesystem, it gets loaded into RAM. While in RAM you can do anything just like a normal system, but the changes won't be persistent. That is, change any document you want, but after a reboot the files will be back to their original state. If the changes are persistent, then the filesystem is NOT read only.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

How did you make this bootable clone and how did you encrypt it?

As for number 2, for it to be a bootable clone that necessitates that it must be usable. Now whether or not you've found some clever way of doing something very similar to a Linux Live CD/DVD where it loads into the RAM (didn't know you could do this with OS X) or whether it's just a standard OS X install is another matter.

For 5 have you tried plugging it into your Mac without decrypting it or entering a password to unlock it to see if the files are accessible. This is assuming the password isn't stored in the keychain and is automatically unlocking it of-course.

For seeing whats booted you can open up Disk Utility then select the partition you think you are booted from and check the "Mount Point" if it's "/" then thats the device its booted off of. You should also be able to select your internal drives partition and successfully unmount it.

 

[Dalton63841]

As for number 2, for it to be a bootable clone that necessitates that it must be usable. Now whether or not you've found some clever way of doing something very similar to a Linux Live CD/DVD where it loads into the RAM (didn't know you could do this with OS X) or whether it's just a standard OS X install is another matter.

Mac does have support for something like this... It works similar to netboot, but the image is stored locally. In fact that is how the recovery partition works. I am curious about the encryption though...

 

[doubledee]

How did you make this bootable clone and how did you encrypt it?

I made a Bootable USB Drive clone using CCC.

I encrypted my Bootable USB Drive using Mountain Lion's FileVault2 interface under System Preferences.

As for number 2, for it to be a bootable clone that necessitates that it must be usable. Now whether or not you've found some clever way of doing something very similar to a Linux Live CD/DVD where it loads into the RAM (didn't know you could do this with OS X) or whether it's just a standard OS X install is another matter.

That was my point...

I thought the Bootable USB Drive I created with CCC would be like a Linux Live CD and wouldn't allow me to change anything.

For 5 have you tried plugging it into your Mac without decrypting it or entering a password to unlock it to see if the files are accessible. This is assuming the password isn't stored in the keychain and is automatically unlocking it of-course.

This may sound silly, but...

Yes, when I boot up from the Internal HDD and then plug in my Encrypted Bootable USB Drive, I get a prompt asking me for a password to access it.

And, yes, if I don't do that, then I cannot see the USB Drive in Finder.

Admittedly, that seems pretty convincing.

HOWEVER, there always seems to be lots of "Back Doors" and I just want to be 300% sure that this Encrypted Bootable USB Drive is actually *encrypted* for sure, because I'd hate to make a mistake and down the road lose my USB Drive and have someone have all of my data?!

All of this is new to me, so I am trying to be doubly, triply, really really certain I am doing the security part right!!!

For seeing whats booted you can open up Disk Utility then select the partition you think you are booted from and check the "Mount Point" if it's "/" then thats the device its booted off of. You should also be able to select your internal drives partition and successfully unmount it.

Okay, I'll try that.

Sincerely,


Debbie

 

[doubledee]

For seeing whats booted you can open up Disk Utility then select the partition you think you are booted from and check the "Mount Point" if it's "/" then thats the device its booted off of. You should also be able to select your internal drives partition and successfully unmount it.

That is good to know.

Thanks!


Debbie