[osxisfun]

Has anyone turned on filevault in 10.4?

I plan to when I get it next week. Just checking to see if anyone has run across anything I should look out for.

thanks

[Mcoupe]

I did an archive install with 10.3.8 and FV enabled to 10.4 and haven't had any issues. FV looks to be pretty solid nowadays.

[osxisfun]

thanks!

[KP*]

I did a fresh install with FileVault on. No problems so far, but I haven't had much time to mess around with stuff.

[powerbook911]

FileVault does slow does your system, correct? It sounds like a great feature, but I wouldn't want to slow down.

[bborofka]

Originally Posted by powerbook911

FileVault does slow does your system, correct? It sounds like a great feature, but I wouldn't want to slow down.

The overhead is very minimal. I never notice a difference in day-to-day use on my PowerBook. It feels just the same as if FileVault was off.

The only thing that takes a while is the reclaiming of disk space when you log out. If I download a bunch of stuff to my desktop or something, it can take several minutes for this process to happen when I restart. Other times, it only takes a few seconds.

Also, if you're sharing a file from your home folder on a network, your bandwidth will be capped because the data is being decrypted on your HD on the fly. So, if you're transferring a large file from your home folder to someone on your local network, it will take a little longer with FileVault on. I don't know what exactly that bandwidth cap is, but it's not that big of a deal.

Overall, FileVault is great and well worth it for portable Mac users.

[osxisfun]

I am not doing video stuff so... If i were doing final cut etc i would not use it.

[osxisfun]

> it can take several minutes for this process to happen when I restart. Other times, it only takes a few seconds.


Bummer. But at least we will have piece of mind. Did you know that 10.4 solves the only secuirty issue that was found (that i know of) ? It had to do with your password being clear text in the swap (vms) now apple encrypts your swap too.

[workerbee]

Originally Posted by bborofka

The overhead is very minimal. I never notice a difference in day-to-day use on my PowerBook. It feels just the same as if FileVault was off.

While it's true that working on a PB feels more or less the same with FileVault turned on or off, the overhead is not really minimal:
On a Dual 2GHz G5 disk I/O measures:
48,9 MB/sec read, 49,0 MB/sec write with HFS+
28,4 MB/sec read, 23,8 MB/sec write with FileVault

On a 1GHz G4:
15,2 MB/sec read, 15,2 MB/sec write with HFS+
10,6 MB/sec read, 10,6 MB/sec write with FileVault

[osxisfun]

i see. but if the vast majority of files in my case are 70k or less it should not matter in real terms..

now if you are copying and working with megabyte + size of files i can see how this might slow things down. definatel.y

[emil]

"Turning on FileVault requires an additional 4088.2 GB of free disk space to create an encrypted copy of the home folder. Try emptying the Trash or deleting files you don't need."

Uhh... I have a 60GB drive with 10 GB free... surely I don't need 4.08 TB to encrypt what I have... do I ???

[Randman]

I just create an encrypted disk image when I want to save thing. Set up it for the size you need, encrypt using FileVault technology without bogging down the entire system.

[Angus_D]

There have been quite a few reports of FileVault images becoming corrupted if your computer crashes. If you do use FileVault, be sure to back up that important data regularly.

[Simon X]

...

[tripletaker]

I stopped using Filevault because it took an hour to reclaim disk space... every time.