Encrypting a drive with Disk Utility?

[choreo]

I have a 2019 Mac Pro with an extra Samsung internal SSD connected via a Sonnet PCI card.

I am considering reformatting the drive with Disk Utility using the "encrypted" option with a password.

I have never done this and was wondering what to expect?

Once formatted this way, does the SSD show up on the desktop "mounted" but not accessible? If so, when I double-click the Icon does it then ask for me to enter a password? If so, how do I lock it back down after accessing data on that drive?

 

[NoBoMac]

It will not mount until you enter the password. Unmount to lock it.

There will be an option, when prompted for the password when the drive is plugged, in to save the password to Keychain. When that option is selected, the drive will automatically mount when plugged in when the account the password was saved is used. So can save a step when you plug in and must dismount to lock it again.

 

[choreo]

It will not mount until you enter the password. Unmount to lock it.

There will be an option, when prompted for the password when the drive is plugged, in to save the password to Keychain. When that option is selected, the drive will automatically mount when plugged in when the account the password was saved is used. So can save a step when you plug in and must dismount to lock it again.

Since this would be connected to an internal PCI card it would be "plugged in" on startup... not sure how that would work?

 

[NoBoMac]

Oops! Sorry, missed the internal part. But guessing will be similar as need to enter passcode to mount since not a boot volume. Guessing will still see a prompt at login to mount the drive.

Will need to test on an old Mac I have where booting off external and old internal is extra storage.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I believe there's a way, perhaps with some Terminal commands, to keep a drive from automounting at startup…if you were thinking about that.

 

[chown33]

Be sure to keep a copy of your password, and any recovery key, in a safe place, and in a form that doesn't need a computer to read. People have lost entire disks of data because of inadequate password safety.

One way to think of the password or recovery key is that it has exactly the same value as the encrypted data itself, and should be handled accordingly. If you value the encrypted data at $10k or hundreds of hours of your work, then the key that lets you access that data is also worth $10k or hundreds of hours.

 

[NoBoMac]

Didn't mess much with this, but basically, on the Mac I tested this (Catalina iMac), drive was converted to APFS Encrypted. On reboot/re-login, was prompted for the password for the drive. Gave the option to save the passcode in Keychain.

So, if you're the only user of the machine, I'd save the key in Keychain, to stop the annoying message each time logging in (and your account password is strong and have FileVault turned on for boot volume). Can always dismount the drive when not needed.

If others use the machine, can get annoying constantly seeing the "enter password" prompt.

Bottom line, basically acts like an external encrypted volume that's perpetually plugged in.