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Documentation Miscellaneous Removable Medium Volume

Volume Mounted as Removable Medium

This section applies to VeraCrypt volumes mounted when one of the following options is enabled (as applicable):

  • Settings > Preferences > Mount volumes as removable media
  • Mount Options > Mount volume as removable medium
  • Favorites > Organize Favorite Volumes > Mount selected volume as removable medium
  • Favorites > Organize System Favorite Volumes > Mount selected volume as removable medium

VeraCrypt Volumes that are mounted as removable media have the following advantages and disadvantages:

  • Windows is prevented from automatically creating the ‘Recycled’ and/or the ‘System Volume Information’ folders on VeraCrypt volumes (in Windows, these folders are used by the Recycle Bin and System Restore features).
  • Windows 8 and later is prevented from writing an Event 98 to the Events Log that contains the device name (\device\VeraCryptVolumeXX) of VeraCrypt volumes formatted using NTFS. This event log "feature" was introduced in Windows 8 as part of newly introduced NTFS health checks as explained here. Big thanks to Liran Elharar for discovering this.
  • Windows may use caching methods and write delays that are normally used for removable media (for example, USB flash drives). This might slightly decrease the performance but at the same increase the likelihood that it will be possible to unmount the volume quickly without having to force the unmount.
  • The operating system may tend to keep the number of handles it opens to such a volume to a minimum. Hence, volumes mounted as removable media might require fewer forced unmounts than other volumes.
  • Under Windows Vista and earlier, the ‘Computer’ (or ‘My Computer’) list does not show the amount of free space on volumes mounted as removable (note that this is a Windows limitation, not a bug in VeraCrypt).
  • Under desktop editions of Windows Vista or later, sectors of a volume mounted as removable medium may be accessible to all users (including users without administrator privileges; see section Multi-User Environment).