Just curious... I am thinking of using it on my MBP. I'm just wondering who uses it just because, or if they have a reason.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Do you use FileVault 2?
- Thread starter Eradik
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I would use it, but I've heard that encrypting the disk causes significant performance degradation. Can anyone confirm this? I'm using a SATA II SSD.
I use FileVault 2 on my laptop. I also use encrypted disk images for sensitive info on all my systems including the laptop. They are set with different passphrases so there are multiple layers for some dirtbag to have to go through.
I used PGP Whole-disk encryption up until a few days before Lion's release, but I'm tired of paying yearly for it (it is for personal use and I can't expense it or claim it as a tax deduction). Plus, now that Symantec owns PGP, I'm sure it's only a version or 2 away from being totally screwed up. Oh yeah, and that Symantec states it will not have a Lion-compatible version for "a few months."
The only reason it's not enabled on my desktop is because I'd be stuck if I had to reboot it remotely.
The key to not losing your data with encryption is BACK IT UP!!! I use time machine and superduper for different reasons/purposes.
I used PGP Whole-disk encryption up until a few days before Lion's release, but I'm tired of paying yearly for it (it is for personal use and I can't expense it or claim it as a tax deduction). Plus, now that Symantec owns PGP, I'm sure it's only a version or 2 away from being totally screwed up. Oh yeah, and that Symantec states it will not have a Lion-compatible version for "a few months."
The only reason it's not enabled on my desktop is because I'd be stuck if I had to reboot it remotely.
The key to not losing your data with encryption is BACK IT UP!!! I use time machine and superduper for different reasons/purposes.
I use it on my 2008 McAir w/SSD in case it should ever fall into the wrong hands..
No performance degradation that I can see..
No performance degradation that I can see..
Just the other day a read a pretty thorough article with benchmarks on File Vault 2. The degradation was enough that i decided against turning it on, I want to say around a 7-10% slow down. I will try to locate it and post it.
Here it is: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4485/back-to-the-mac-os-x-107-lion-review/18
Last edited:
Thanks! Well, it doesn't look like I'll be encrypting my disk any time soon. I doubt if there's anything on my Mac that anyone would care to steal, anyways.
I want to but I don't want to lose computer performance nor do I want to lose functionality of Time Machine.
I'm the same way, but am considering it because I just don't like the thought of someone going through my stuff. Granted, all it would be is school papers and family pictures, but its still creepy.
I do know you can still use TM. You can encrypt the TM backup as well for extra security.
Thanks for that link 87am!
According to that it's a 20%-30% hit to I/O (although how much you'd notice it depends on what you're doing of course). Too much for me as I tend to manipulate a large number of files, hard disk access has always been a big bottleneck for me, especially on laptops. I'll leave it off for now. Glad it's there if you need it though, seems to work well.
You could always set up multiple partitions - I have an encrypted boot partition, a non-encrypted working file/scratch partition, and an encrypted document storage partition. Honestly, I didn't notice any speed decrease at all.
crash
crash
Last edited:
I know it can still be used but from what I read is that it only backs up when you start your system up and not every hour like it does normally. Is this true?
He was doing tests while it was still encrypting files in the background. So there is going to be a performance hit. It's like with spotlight when it is indexing. After it finishes encrypting files there is barely a performance hit at all if any.
A. If you are using a fairly recent model, you won't notice any change in performance.
B. You will not lose Time Machine functionality. In fact, you can encrypt your Time Machine hard drive as well. After all, what's the point of encrypting your Mac's hard drive if someone can simply pick up your backup drive and access any file they please?
Just to note, I encrypted both my Mac's internal hard drive and my Time Machine drive. My machine is a late 2008 MacBook Pro (Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, 750GB 7200rpm hard drive) and I have not felt any performance hit at all. Overall the system feels snappier since I've upgraded to Lion. I'm pushing a lot of files around (RAW image files) and haven't felt a difference.
And thats the same thing people said when FileVault was first launched Panther. There is no more chance of FileVault messing up your system then there is of any full encryption software messing up your system. And as I said there is negligible performance hit when using it. The article above didn't take into account it takes about 9 hours to encrypt a 320 GB HD and it is doing it in the background so you can continue to use your computer. Within those 9 hours of course there will be a performance hit but after it is fully encrypted there is pretty much nothing.
I just can't get myself to trust it after some horrible instances w/ earlier iterations of File Vault. Maybe I'll give it a shot down the road if I keep seeing reports of good results
Really? Wow, that's pretty bad for a reviewer to do that. Maybe it's time to finally flick the switch then....
One question... anyone use FileVault with a Momentus XT? Any problems with the sad cache on that drive and it impacting the drives performance?
I'm curious about this. Isn't the Backup file that is stored on your whatever external drive or time capsule also an encrypted sparse image already if you turn FV2 on?
Since it is FDE, it is transparent to the system (more or less). That is the beauty of it. CoreStorage is pretty slick.
Code:
CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group ABA40676-353A-4C30-923B-1DC16E38024F
=========================================================
Name: Macintosh HD
Sequence: 1
Free Space: 0 B (0 B)
|
+-< Physical Volume 775898EA-A045-4E71-B5F0-4E86C6CC325D
| ----------------------------------------------------
| Index: 0
| Disk: disk0s2
| Status: Online
| Size: 749296615424 B (749.3 GB)
|
+-> Logical Volume Family F665F8C7-E6D5-412A-B0F0-8E2D6E6BB2DC
----------------------------------------------------------
Sequence: 22
Encryption Status: Unlocked
Encryption Type: AES-XTS
Encryption Context: Present
Conversion Status: Complete
Has Encrypted Extents: Yes
Conversion Direction: -none-
|
+-> Logical Volume 4E0E416B-F743-4194-B3F0-83F11E7ED6EC
---------------------------------------------------
Disk: disk1
Status: Online
Sequence: 4
Size (Total): 748977844224 B (749.0 GB)
Size (Converted): -none-
Revertible: Yes (unlock and decryption required)
LV Name: Macintosh HD
Volume Name: Macintosh HD
Content Hint: Apple_HFSNo. You have to encrypt it as the files that are getting backed up are the unencrypted versions.