Is FileVault a Friend or Foe?

[pagetuneup]

I've been thinking about turning FileVault on... I'm kind of hesitant about it though because its screaming warnings everywhere about turning it on. I have some pretty sensitive data on my machine, I also know that this affects my time machine backups in some way, anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Tumbleweed666]

I've been thinking about turning FileVault on... I'm kind of hesitant about it though because its screaming warnings everywhere about turning it on. I have some pretty sensitive data on my machine, I also know that this affects my time machine backups in some way, anyone have any thoughts?

If you are using FileVault, TM is pretty much ruled out for reasons of practicality.

You can create an encrypted disk volume, better to have one of those to store your pr0n and back it up separately, and exclude it from TM unless its very small.

Reason for not using TM with FV, and excluding an encrypted Disk Image from TM, is as follows;
Any time a file changes, TM backs it up when it runs. If your whole user directory is encrypted, TM sees that as a whole and so it wants to back all of it up even if only 1 file changed.
Example; On a 500Gb volume, you change a 1Mb file, TM backs up 1Mb. If its encrypted, TM only sees the 500Gb as a whole, so it backs up the entire 500Gb. You'll fill up your TM disk in a heartbeat.

 

[pagetuneup]

Wow

Great reply! Thats a life saver. What are some of the perks to encrypting my files? I also access this computer remotely all the time using LogMeIn is encrypting going to be a problem? What about printing on a shared network and sharing folders and such? Would this have a serious effect on my dropbox or when i try and send certain files to people? I there any way to only encrypt certain files? I only have certain files that i consider to be "mission critical" what about encrypting a files on my server?

 

[Lagmonster]

Do you need Full Disk Encryption or can you store your sensitive files in an encrypted "volume"? You can make TrueCrypt work on OSX, that way an encryption "volume" can work on multiple platforms if ever needed.

 

[John T]

If they are a reasonable size, I have found encrypted images produced by Disc Utility can take some time. I have found SecureFiles to be an excellent tool and more convenient to use. What's more, it's free!