Filevault, 2 internal SSDs and merging

[thecounthahaha]

Hi,

I've got a mid 2012 macbook pro where I've put a data doubler in to replace the DVD drive. I've also just turned on filevault for my system SSD drive.

I've just bought a second SSD for the data doubler, replacing a HDD. I want this second drive to also be covered by filevault, which I don't think is possible as a 'second' drive.

Am I right in thinking if I merge/raid them into 1 singular visible drive they'd both be covered under filevault? If so, how do I go about doing that?

The main OS drive is APFS, but currently the second SSD is Mac OS Journalled (extended).

Thanks very much in advance

 

[LuisN]

Hi,

I've got a mid 2012 macbook pro where I've put a data doubler in to replace the DVD drive. I've also just turned on filevault for my system SSD drive.

I've just bought a second SSD for the data doubler, replacing a HDD. I want this second drive to also be covered by filevault, which I don't think is possible as a 'second' drive.

Am I right in thinking if I merge/raid them into 1 singular visible drive they'd both be covered under filevault? If so, how do I go about doing that?

The main OS drive is APFS, but currently the second SSD is Mac OS Journalled (extended).

Thanks very much in advance

Try this:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309739/apfs-container-over-multiple-physical-disks#
That's what I use to create fusion drives in apfs but it works very well with two SSDs

 

[velocityg4]

@thecounthahaha, what do you want to do?

• Make them a single RAID 0 volume.
• Simply enable encryption on the second drive.

Making them a single RAID 0 volume will require wiping both drives and reinstalling macOS.

Enabling encryption is easier.

1. Right click the drive (or control-click).
2. Select Encrypt "SSD Name"
3. Enter a password for it.
4. Restart the computer or unmount and mount the drive.
5. You should be prompted to enter the password. Enter it and choose Remember this password in my keychain if you wish.

Although since it is an SSD. I would change it to APFS first in Disk Utility.

 

[thecounthahaha]

@thecounthahaha, what do you want to do?

• Make them a single RAID 0 volume.
• Simply enable encryption on the second drive.

Making them a single RAID 0 volume will require wiping both drives and reinstalling macOS.

Enabling encryption is easier.

1. Right click the drive (or control-click).
2. Select Encrypt "SSD Name"
3. Enter a password for it.
4. Restart the computer or unmount and mount the drive.
5. You should be prompted to enter the password. Enter it and choose Remember this password in my keychain if you wish.

Although since it is an SSD. I would change it to APFS first in Disk Utility.

Ah - I definitely don't want to wipe both drives - the second one I don't mind but not the main boot.

Essentially, I used to run my laptop on 1 ssd with dropbox running off that boot drive. I need more space for dropbox, so got a second ssd for the caddy for just dropbox, but it is now no longer covered by filevault, in case of lost/stolen laptop.

I had seen that there's not a way to get filevault on 'external' drives, so thought there might be a way to get the mac to see them as 1 (twice the size) drive via raid or something.

With your encryption method - at what point does it ask for the password, or does it remember it once I've booted and logged into my mac? Do you see any issues with dropbox/permissions this way?

View attachment 849964 View attachment 849965 View attachment 849966
Try this:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/309739/apfs-container-over-multiple-physical-disks#
That's what I use to create fusion drives in apfs but it works very well with two SSDs

That looks rather scary! Is there a chance it'll stop working with future versions of MacOS too? Does it require both drives to be wiped like in the Raid0 method?

 

[Honza1]

You seem to be mistaken about encryption of secondary drives...
Any drive - including external and second internal - can (and should) be encrypted with same encryption scheme. FileVault -type encryption. But only main drive will advertise that in the System Preferences, all other drives are simply encrypted. Same encryption. But secondary drives do not need to be bootable and be able to be unlocked without system booted/logged in as primary drive. Therefore macOS calls the encrypted main drive as FileVault while the others are simply encrypted.
Encrypt the other drive and be done with it.

 

[thecounthahaha]

You seem to be mistaken about encryption of secondary drives...
Any drive - including external and second internal - can (and should) be encrypted with same encryption scheme. FileVault -type encryption. But only main drive will advertise that in the System Preferences, all other drives are simply encrypted. Same encryption. But secondary drives do not need to be bootable and be able to be unlocked without system booted/logged in as primary drive. Therefore macOS calls the encrypted main drive as FileVault while the others are simply encrypted.
Encrypt the other drive and be done with it.

Great - happy to be mistaken, especially if I'm worrying about nothing! I assume I right click the drive and "Encrypt Drive"? Would I be better off switching to apfs first?

 

[chabig]

I had seen that there's not a way to get filevault on 'external' drives

That is incorrect. You can encrypt the drive as velocityg4 described in the post above yours. Right-click on it and select "Encrypt...". You can choose to enter the password every time, or associate the password with your account so that you never again have to enter the password to mount it.

I would absolutely reformat to APFS first, since its an SSD.

 

[thecounthahaha]

Thanks everyone - I reformatted to APFS and encrypted the drive.

It seems to be working reasonably well on the whole - although I've noticed it doesn't like the desktop background file being on this second drive, or a folder from that drive in the dock. It picks a random desktop background and puts a ? in the dock. I expect it's because the unlocking of the drive is done a bit after the boot?

One major issue I'm having though is none of my time machine drives now work. It prepares backup for ages, and then I either get a message about snapshots or it takes far far too long do do anything. I left it on for nearly 3 days over the weekend and it backed up only 166gb to a USB3 hard drive.

Is there something I can flush/delete/do to get time machine working properly again? I've used macs for 10 years now and this is the first time i've had issues with Time Machine....

Thanks

 

[chabig]

none of my time machine drives now work

it backed up only 166gb to a USB3 hard drive

You've made two contradictory statements. It sounds like it's working, though slowly. That will probably resolve itself once the first backup is complete.

 

[thecounthahaha]

I started a backup on a clean drive this morning and it's done 497.4mb out of 983gb, over those 5 hours. That's not a 'wait and see' file transfer time unfortunately...

Could there be a library preference file or something causing issues, like there often is with finder/other apps?