Linux – Dual Boot TrueCrypt Encrypted Windows and Linux with Grub workaround

The best survey I have seen so far is this one: http://media-addicted.de/ssd-and-truecrypt-durability-and-performance-issues/744/

...which says overall that the impact of encryption on SSD performance is minimal and does not bring it down below spinning hard disk performance. So apparently, encrypted SSD performance is never worse than hard disk performance. However this does depend on the machine hardware, i.e. processor.

I've decided to install just Windows 7 on the machine in question and take up @Brian's suggestion to use the XP Mode.

Though I do have a XP license that I want to make use of still - I will put this on another machine - a MacBookPro, that I own, withing VirtualBox.

About the machine in the original question - it's a Toshiba NB100 netbook Atom N270, 1.6Ghz single core hyperthreaded, 2Gb RAM. I have replaced the internal SATA 5400rpm 120Gb toshiba drive that came with it with a Crucial M4 128Gb SSD. Photos to follow in disassembly.

I had already truecrypted Windows XP on this NB100 machine and was happy with the performance once booted and settled down. So my goal was to improve boot time and update to a newer OS.

I have installed Windows 7 Professional on the SDD now in this NB100 and truecrypted the whole SDD. The boot time takes anecdotally about 3-4 seconds longer than pre-Truecrypt but once booted the responsiveness seems the same pre-Truecrypt. Windows Experience Index shows no impact - screen shots to follow.

Update

The SSD died after 1 week of use, a replacement is being sent. I may or may not choose to encrypt even though there is no evidence that encryption caused the failure. I may consider alternative security measures instead of encryption here: What alternative security measures are there to full drive encryption (for performance reasons)?

As described here, you need to do the following (The following must be done as root on your Arch OS):

As I can assume from your Output /dev/sdb2 seems to be your Windows-Bootloader so the First step will be:

$ mkdir /mnt/windows
$ mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/windows
$ grub-probe --target=fs_uuid /mnt/windows/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

Copy the Output of the last Command to a File and proceed with this:

$ grub-probe --target=hints_string /mnt/windows/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

Also copy the output to the File. After that run the following to unmount the Partition

$ umount /mnt/windows
$ rmdir /mnt/windows

After that open the File /boot/grub/custom.cfg with your preferred editor and add the Following Lines:

if [ "${grub_platform}" == "efi" ]; then
    menuentry "Microsoft Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 UEFI/GPT" {
        insmod part_gpt
        insmod fat
        insmod search_fs_uuid
        insmod chain
        search --fs-uuid --set=root $hints_string $fs_uuid
        chainloader /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
    }
fi

Where $hints_string is the second Output and $fs_uuid is the first one.

At least run this to update your Grub:

$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

After reboot your Grub should contain the Entry for Windows, for more information about how to configure your Grub see this Page