How to encrypt recovered HFS+ Time Machine volume?

[steffi]

I recently had to recover a corrupted HFS+ Time Machine Backup which meant that I had to use Super Duper to copy the contents of another volume and then use tmutil with inheritbackups and setdestination. (tip the -a flag)

That all worked and I now have the volume back but it's unencrypted.

As you know in Monterey you cannot create an encrypted HFS+ volume so how can I convert this existing HFS+ volume
to an encrypted one that Time Machine recognizes as such without losing the history that's on the drive.

 

[chabig]

As you know in Monterey you cannot create an encrypted HFS+ volume

I do not know that. Right click on the volume on the desktop and select "Encrypt".

 

[steffi]

I do not know that. Right click on the volume on the desktop and select "Encrypt".

FYI I have 3 Time Machine volumes.
1. HFS+ unencrypted (no option to do that)
2. HFS+ encrypted (no option to do that ie. no Decrypt)
3. APFS encrypted (option to Decrypt is there)

 

[steffi]

FYI I have 3 Time Machine volumes.
1. HFS+ unencrypted (no option to do that)
2. HFS+ encrypted (no option to do that ie. no Decrypt)
3. APFS encrypted (option to Decrypt is there)

It's looking like I need a reliable way to convert the HFS+ unencrypted to APFS unencrypted first.

 

[chabig]

I'm running the latest version of Monterey. Here is an external drive that I formatted as HFS+.


Here it is on the desktop. I right clicked on it. See the option to encrypt?

 

[Fishrrman]

Hmmmmm...

You just had problems with a tm volume becoming corrupted, and it sounds like it took some work to "get it back" to being readable again. Right...?

THE LAST THING I would do is to "encrypt" that drive. It will become one more roadblock in the future to "getting at" the files.

If there are files on the drive that are sensitive, then either keep it in a hidden location, or perhaps store it in a locked container of some kind (such as a fireproof strongbox).

I want backups that are easy to access in "a moment of need"...

 

[steffi]

Hmm. I keep all my Time Machine backups on encrypted drives.

I had 3 drives as Time Machine destinations. (HFS+ encrypted, HFS+ encrypted, APFS encrypted)

One drive got corrupted. so I reformatted as HFS+ and used Super Duper to copy from the other drive. that had similar history on it. (2 * 10 TB drives, APFS is only a 4 TB drive)

That left me when a HFS+ volume that I was able to get recognized by Time Machine using tmutil

Now my preference is to keep Time Machine backups encrypted so right now I'm trying to see if I can now convert the HFS+ volume to APFS and then hopefully encrypted it after that.

 

[chabig]

One drive got corrupted. so I reformatted as HFS+ and…

You could have encrypted it when you reformatted it. You can also do it after as I showed above. The result is the same either way.

 

[steffi]

You could have encrypted it when you reformatted it. You can also do it after as I showed above. The result is the same either way.

Yes I plan to go down that path after I've converted it to APFS. I don't have any Encrypt option on the HFS+ volume like you do but I assume when you select that it will convert it to APFS.

 

[chabig]

Yes I plan to go down that path after I've converted it to APFS. I don't have any Encrypt option on the HFS+ volume like you do but I assume when you select that it will convert it to APFS.

No. I get an encrypted HFS+ volume. When you formatted yours did you make sure to use a GUID Partition Map?

 

[steffi]

No. I get an encrypted HFS+ volume. When you formatted yours did you make sure to use a GUID Partition Map?

I don't think so. I already had a APFS volume on this drive.

Do you know if Time Machine still expects to be the exclusive owner of this volume since I have other files on it and nothing is complaining yet.

Here's what that disk looks like

/dev/disk9 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *10.0 TB disk9
1: EFI ⁨EFI⁩ 209.7 MB disk9s1
2: Apple_HFS ⁨Time Machine Disk 1⁩ 6.8 TB disk9s2
3: Apple_APFS ⁨Container disk12⁩ 3.2 TB disk9s3

 

[steffi]

The conversion to APFS failed with some cryptic error from hfs_convert

tx_flush:1170: untitled xid 38620 tx stats: # 38620 finish 3 enter 739 wait 0 0us close 0us flush 598669us
obj_checksum_verify:5208: untitleds1 failed: cksum 0x0a00000006000004, oid 0xda1a2, o_xid 0x8ca9, o_type 0x3, o_subtype 0xe, size 8192
failed: cksum 0x0a00000006000004, oid 0xda1a2, o_xid 0x8ca9, o_type 0x3, o_subtype 0xe, size 8192
nx_corruption_detected_int:55: untitled Container corruption detected by obj_checksum_verify:5216!
obj_read:4820: untitleds1 oid 0xda1a2 flags 0x523 0x0 type 0x3/0xe paddr 0x23a98617 error verifying checksum

 

[steffi]

I seem to having some success if I take this external volume and use it on my old MacBook Air with High Sierra. It's letting me encrypt/decrypt at will and it seems to be happy to continue encryption when plugged back into my M1 Max on Monterey.