FileVault on MBA?

[Laes]

Hey guys,

Just got my MBA 13" Ultimate yesterday (loving it btw, my first mac ever 😀) and I've been having a look into FileVault and will most likely want to use it due to the fact that this will have a lot of personal files and documents stored, as well as things for work.

Does anyone know if this will cause much slowdown or noticeably affect performance on the MBA?

Cheers.

PS. As a side question, does anyone know if the drive will still be readable from Windows 7 with MacDrive after using FileVault?

 

[BeyondtheTech]

I did a total lockdown on my 11.6" MBA in the unlikely event it got lost or stolen:

• Firmware password via the Mac OS X Installer USB Drive, to prevent booting a different volume or formatting/changing the SSD drive
• FileVault for encrypting the hard drive
• Hidden app for locating and logging
• Administrator account lockdown, including disabling Airport Wi-Fi, and adding a bunch of common access points and their credentials
• Added Guest account for limited internet access, and also used so MBA can be tracked and traced when online
• Changed the login background to reflect my contact details.

That being said, FileVault does not appear to slow down the MBA during use. It's only when rebooting the MBA that it goes to 'reclaim unused disk space' which can take a few minutes. You can obviously cancel it to postpone the procedure for next time around.

Since FileVault only encrypts the user folder, the rest of the drive that has the OS and the applications may be accessible. But, with the firmware password in place, they won't be able to boot to a USB drive or network share on that MBA without entering a password first anyway.