Use filevault in college?

[edgonzalez32]

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I'm finishing up my packing to leave for college tomorrow. I know that lion comes with filevault 2. Is this recommended to be used? I'll be living on campus in a suite, with 5 other guys. I appreciate any feedback.

 

[miles01110]

You don't have anything important enough that requires you to use it if you don't want to.

 

[edgonzalez32]

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I should mention I'm a graphic designer that freelances; all my work is on it. Can my hard drive be wiped out if filevault is not turned on? Or am I just reading into this too much?

 

[iVoid]

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I should mention I'm a graphic designer that freelances; all my work is on it. Can my hard drive be wiped out if filevault is not turned on? Or am I just reading into this too much?

Your hard drive can be wiped out at anytime reguardless if you turn filevault on or not. (Although with Lion's filevault2, they'd have to get by the efi password or pull the drive to wipe the drive).

Filevault also doesn't protect against disk problems or directory problems causing files to get lost/damaged. In some cases, it might make the chances of losing data a little more likely (just a little).

What filevault does is keep someone who doesn't know your password from reading any of your data (assuming your password protect the screen saver as well).

So if you're afraid of one of your college mates looking at your data, turn it on. Otherwise, don't bother.