FileVault on Lion - performance and can it be undone?

tornadof3 · Jan 7, 2012

Hello

I have a new mac with OS X Lion. FileVault is currently not enabled, but I am considering enabling it. I have some questions:

* can FileVault apply to an already-existing install? (I have about 800GB free HDD space). I already have all my media and documents on this machine.
* what is the performance hit like when using disk encryption? I used disk encryption on my old laptop under linux and it did go slow, but not sure if due to encryption or machine
* can FileVault be disabled? In the future if I decide I no longer wish to use encryption, can I turn it off easily without having to do a re-install?

Thanks for any help.

RavingMac · Jan 7, 2012

tornadof3 said:
Hello

I have a new mac with OS X Lion. FileVault is currently not enabled, but I am considering enabling it. I have some questions:

* can FileVault apply to an already-existing install? (I have about 800GB free HDD space). I already have all my media and documents on this machine.
* what is the performance hit like when using disk encryption? I used disk encryption on my old laptop under linux and it did go slow, but not sure if due to encryption or machine
* can FileVault be disabled? In the future if I decide I no longer wish to use encryption, can I turn it off easily without having to do a re-install?

Thanks for any help.

Yes and yes to your first and third questions. Don't have a good feel on the performance impact. I ran the old FileVault and never really noticed a slow down.

Having said all of that, I would not reccommend running it. The chances of a catastrophic and unrecoverable data loss are too great for the benefits.
A better option IMO is to use Encrypted Disk Images for files you want to maintain on your internal HD, and use FileVault2 to encrypt external HDs.

tornadof3 · Jan 19, 2012

Thanks for the replies. I can say that I am now running FileVault 2 and can notice no performance impact at all; seems easy to use. Happy days.

TattooedMac · Jan 19, 2012

Razormac said:
Having said all of that, I would not reccommend running it. The chances of a catastrophic and unrecoverable data loss are too great for the benefits.
A better option IMO is to use Encrypted Disk Images for files you want to maintain on your internal HD, and use FileVault2 to encrypt external HDs.

From what i have read on the new FV though are of good reviews, too a extent. After my issues with FV i would also recommend to not use it, but honestly mate i think it would be worth looking to use for people that need it. On that see below

tornadof3 said:
Thanks for the replies. I can say that I am now running FileVault 2 and can notice no performance impact at all; seems easy to use. Happy days.

Just a heads up, glad you have it running and is doing what intended to do, but have a read of my thread http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-operating-system/180474-peoples-take-file-vault-please.html and can make your on conclusions. The newer version just might be worth it, but unless you have some Top Secret Squirrel stuff going on i can't see the point of using it.
Glad your happy with it. Another good review

Cheers

FileVault on Lion - performance and can it be undone?

tornadof3

RavingMac

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tornadof3

TattooedMac

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