[Trygve]

I have a LaCie external FW drive (250GB) and would like to encrypt everything on it somewhat like an encrypted disc image.

I could create a 250GB disc image so that the drive really only has a single file on it and everything gets encrypted.

Would it be better to break this up in to say three or four 60-80GB disc images?

Is there a way to just specify the volume is to be encrypted?

It will store sensitive files and I need them protected should the drive be stolen.

Thanks,

Trygve

[TETENAL]

I would either create one disk image the size of the disk, but probably a sparse disk image that grows as needed (and can be compacted if files are deleted off it). That way I could add additional sparse disk images if necessary and also keep unencrypted space for stuff like iMovie projects.

[Dr. Smoke]

To encrypt entire disks, you might want to look at CipherDisk II from <a href="http://www.subrosasoft.com/">SubrosaSoft</a>. They also have a pair of tools: Encryptor and Decryptor (the second is free) for encrypting files and folders. These latter two are also available in a bundle they call File Utilities.

I have not used these personally, but I have heard good things about them from reliable sources.

I also concur with the advice on using a sparse disk image. Many more options are available with sparse images if you use the hdiutil command in Terminal than through Disk Utility.

[Goldfinger]

I'd do it with a sparse disk image as well.

FYI: there also hard drives with hardware encryption available.

[Millennium]

If I wanted an entire disk to be encrypted, I'd probably go with something like this. It doesn't have as much space as the drive you have -though maybe it's possible to get a larger version?- but the encryption is hardware-based (ergo much faster) and it works based on a hardware dongle, so there's no password to remember or guess.

That said, the encryption algorithm on these things really isn't as strong as I'd like. Does someone know of an enclosure that uses better encryption?

[Trygve]

I have heard that sparse images are more prone to corruption... is that so? Basically if the system crashes, it was mentioned that non-sparse images are much less likely to get messed up.

???

[york28]

What if you created a user, moved that user's home to the FW disk, and then activated FileVault? You couldn't log that user in without having the drive, but it should work otherwise I'd think.

[beetleboy]

I use PGP Disk. It's served my needs well for years. Check it out here - www.pgp.com

[beetleboy]

You can buy PGP Personal Desktop 8.1 for $59. One added bonus with PGP is that it's source is available for download.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by york28:
What if you created a user, moved that user's home to the FW disk, and then activated FileVault? You couldn't log that user in without having the drive, but it should work otherwise I'd think.

FileVault is an encrypted sparse disk image.

I have not yet heard that sparse disk images are prone to corruption. They are used by millions of FileVault users without problem.