How to Clone an Encrypted Hard Drive
Whether for backup or forensics, the cloning of an encrypted hard drive can be accomplished easily using the dd, or disk dump, tool that comes with all POSIX-based operating systems. As a raw disk writer, dd takes all of the information on the hard drive, bit by bit, and clones it in identical form on another disk. The advantage of this is that it can clone encryption and all without having to access the encrypted file structure. Data can remain secure while a backup is made.
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Instructions
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Open a command prompt or terminal window on your operating system. On Windows this can be done by typing "cmd" into the Run dialog and pressing "Enter," while on Linux and Mac OS X you can simply launch the Terminal application from your desktop.
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Print your disk information either using the "fdisk" command or by launching Disk Management in Windows. Write down the physical device names for both the disk you want to copy and the disk receiving the data. Both should be connected to the computer at this time.
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Type "dd if=/dev/disk1 of=/dev/disk2" where "/dev/disk1" is the physical device name of the disk you want to copy and "/dev/disk2" is the physical device name of the disk to receive the data. The "if" parameter stands for input format and "of" stands for output format.
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Tips & Warnings
The Windows operating system does not come with dd installed by default, but you can acquire the free software from a variety of Win32 GNU tool packages (see Resources). The dd command forms the backbone for much of the raw disk copying software out there, so you might as well go to the source.
Make sure not to clone drives that you currently are using to run your operating system. Use a Linux Live CD or USB to run dd and image an encrypted hard drive if your primary drive is the one you want to copy.
References
Resources
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