How do I encrypt external HDD?

[Ambrosia7177]

I was able to create a clone of my new 1TB HDD in my MBP and place it on an external HDD.

Not sure about these things...

1.) In order to encrypt the external HDD, I have to boot from it, right?


2.) If #1 is true, then can I boot up from the external HDD, start the encryption process, but later today shutdown my MBP and finish the encryption some other day?

(I am at work right now, and can't leave my laptop running at work for a couple of days!!)

Thanks,


Larry

 

[Weaselboy]

Do you want to cloned disk to be bootable, or is it just for backup purposes?

If it is just a backup and you want to encrypt, just right click on the drive in Finder and select encrypt.

If you want it to be bootable, you need to follow the process here. You can use the 30 day trial of CCC to set this up.

You can sleep etc and pause encryption.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Do you want to cloned disk to be bootable, or is it just for backup purposes?

If it is just a backup and you want to encrypt, just right click on the drive in Finder and select encrypt.

If you want it to be bootable, you need to follow the process here. You can use the 30 day trial of CCC to set this up.

You can sleep etc and pause encryption.

It is a bootable clone, and I do not want to use CCC to encrypt it. I want to encrypt it using OS-X.

If I start the encryption process using OS-X and then can't finish in one setting, can I just shut down and pick up another day by booting up from the external drive?

 

[Weaselboy]

It is a bootable clone, and I do not want to use CCC to encrypt it. I want to encrypt it using OS-X.

If I start the encryption process using OS-X and then can't finish in one setting, can I just shut down and pick up another day by booting up from the external drive?

You need to read through the entire CCC article I linked. You are not using CCC to encrypt. All you use CCC for is to make sure you have a Recovery HD partition on the external drive. Once you have done that with CCC, you just boot to the external and encrypt it with OS X FileVault.

I know you can sleep it to pause, but I don't know if you can actually shut it down then restart to the external to resume encryption. I would not do that.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

You need to read through the entire CCC article I linked. You are not using CCC to encrypt. All you use CCC for is to make sure you have a Recovery HD partition on the external drive. Once you have done that with CCC, you just boot to the external and encrypt it with OS X FileVault.

I read the entire manual a few weeks ago. And, yes, I created a Recovery HDD.

I know you can sleep it to pause, but I don't know if you can actually shut it down then restart to the external to resume encryption. I would not do that.

I know on an internal HDD, OS-X is supposed to have no issues if you shut down, start up, shut down, etc while encrypting. You would think the same would apply to an external drive, because OS-X should see any difference.

I really don't have a choice, because my laptop goes with me where I go, and I can't stay one place for 24-48 hours.

Does anyone else know if this would be an issue?

 

[CoastalOR]

I know on an internal HDD, OS-X is supposed to have no issues if you shut down, start up, shut down, etc while encrypting. You would think the same would apply to an external drive, because OS-X should see any difference.
I really don't have a choice, because my laptop goes with me where I go, and I can't stay one place for 24-48 hours.
Does anyone else know if this would be an issue?

The answer to your question is in the link Weaselboy provided in Post #2. Carefully read the 2nd Note (You do not have to wait for the conversion process to complete before using the backup disk) where it talks about "Encryption will continue as long as the backup disk is attached". The FileVault encryption will resume when the backup HD is reattached even if you are booted from your internal drive.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

The answer to your question is in the link Weaselboy provided in Post #2. Carefully read the 2nd Note (You do not have to wait for the conversion process to complete before using the backup disk) where it talks about "Encryption will continue as long as the backup disk is attached". The FileVault encryption will resume when the backup HD is reattached even if you are booted from your internal drive.

I stand corrected - I didn't see that in the CCC manual that I read.

That is good to know, because my primary HDD took over a day to encrypt, and I can't leave my Mac on with an external HDD dangling around for that long!