How to Turn On Hardware Encryption on a Samsung 840 Evo

[macrumnev]

I want to turn off Filevault because it may reduce performance and it may cause problems with Trim, and I want to turn on Hardware Encryption.

I have a Macbook Pro 9,2
running 10.8.5
installed a Samsung 840 Evo, 750 Gigs

How do I turn 'on' the hardware encryption so I can turn off Filevault?

thanks

 

[maflynn]

Looks like it needs to use Samsung software which is windows only. That is you cannot use the hardware encryption on your Mac.

 

[macrumnev]

Thanks for the reply, but you say software ... ? ...

Don't I need to turn hardware encryption (HE) 'on' in the Mac BIOS (EFI) somehow? ... or do you mean firmware, or ... what do you mean by software?

On a PC you just go in the BIOS and turn it 'on' and give it a password, if your motherboard is equipped with it, I think is how it works. I know there are 4 or 5 encryption systems. Opal is one, IIRC, and TRG (or something). I think the encryption formats or protocols on the motherboard just needs to match the ones on the drive. Since the Evo is brand new, it probably has the right protocols to match the Macbook Pro ... I hope.

Well, here's another question to start from then: If I buy an Apple SSD can I turn HE on? How do I turn it on?

 

[laurihoefs]

Thanks for the reply, but you say software ... ? ...

Don't I need to turn hardware encryption (HE) 'on' in the Mac BIOS (EFI) somehow? ... or do you mean firmware, or ... what do you mean by software?

On a PC you just go in the BIOS and turn it 'on' and give it a password, if your motherboard is equipped with it, I think is how it works. I know there are 4 or 5 encryption systems. Opal is one, IIRC, and TRG (or something). I think the encryption formats or protocols on the motherboard just needs to match the ones on the drive. Since the Evo is brand new, it probably has the right protocols to match the Macbook Pro ... I hope.

Well, here's another question to start from then: If I buy an Apple SSD can I turn HE on? How do I turn it on?

Apple has not implemented support for ATA passwords, so the EVO's hardware FDE is not supported. Software based encryption is the only option.

The performance impact of FileVault 2 is negligible on hardware that supports AES encryption. All Intel i5 and i7 CPUs support AES since Sandy Bridge.

 

[maflynn]

Thanks for the reply, but you say software ... ? ...

Don't I need to turn hardware encryption (HE) 'on' in the Mac BIOS (EFI) somehow? ... or do you mean firmware, or ... what do you mean by software?

The drive comes with software to help configure it. That is windows only. You need software to access/configure the hardware.

On a PC you just go in the BIOS and turn it 'on' and give it a password, if your motherboard is equipped with it, I think is how it works. I know there are 4 or 5 encryption systems. Opal is one, IIRC, and TRG (or something). I think the encryption formats or protocols on the motherboard just needs to match the ones on the drive. Since the Evo is brand new, it probably has the right protocols to match the Macbook Pro ... I hope.

Macs don't have BIOS and there's no way for you to do this.

Well, here's another question to start from then: If I buy an Apple SSD can I turn HE on? How do I turn it on?

No, you use Apple's encryption solution, FileVault.

I've been using FV2 on my rMBP and I really do not notice any performance degradation at all. While it would be nicer to have hardware (no arguments), FV2 is a great solution.

 

[macrumnev]

Hmmm, well that's disappointing. Thanks for the replies. Maybe in the future it will be supported.