Encryption of SSD and creating disk images

Security
1

Hi.
I wish to encrypt either both the System files and/or my Home Directory
If I install a Distro and encrypt the whole disk, then if I wish to make a disk image for re-installing, Parted Magic makes an image of the whole disk (250 GB) which takes 12 HOURS!
There would seem to be two options:

  1. Encrypt the boot partition on installation and afterwards encrypt my Home directory or

  2. Not bother to encrypt the Boot partition at all, and just encrypt my Home directory.

Can anyone give me some advice on this?
Many thanks

2

I asked a similar question many years ago. The advice I received was not to encrypt the whole disk as it would lead to difficulties later on, but to encrypt just those directories/files that were sensitive.
At the time I used PGP (now GnuPG I think) for encryption and it was fine, although I don’t bother now.

You might find this link useful: https://www.fosslinux.com/27018/best-ways-to-encrypt-files-in-linux.htm

Keith