Encryption/Mac OS X

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Okay, so I'm going to college and plan on bringing my external hard drive. It is currently formatted in NTFS. I am pretty sure that if I enable encryption on the drive it will only work on my laptop and not anyone else's. Aside from the incompatibilies that Apple has with the NTFS file system, is it possible to format a hard drive so that it only works on the computer it was formatted by?

 

[Scott66]

First off, there is no incompatibilities. Macs with 10.3 or higher can read ntfs files from drives just fine.

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Originally posted by: Scott66
First off, there is no incompatibilities. Macs with 10.3 or higher can read ntfs files from drives just fine.

Yes, but they apparently can't write to NTFS: http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/arch_fs.html

or can they?

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: LASTGUY2GETPS2
is it possible to format a hard drive so that it only works on the computer it was formatted by?

Regardless of whether it is currently possible, is that really a good idea? What happens if the motherboard needs replacing? How will you recover your data? Backups?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Try messing with filevault. It might be able to do what you want.

 

[Scott66]

No osX can't Write to NTFS but I thought you were more concerned with security. Also after you read the drive, the files can be copied to a flash drive.

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Originally posted by: bersl2

Originally posted by: LASTGUY2GETPS2
is it possible to format a hard drive so that it only works on the computer it was formatted by?

Regardless of whether it is currently possible, is that really a good idea? What happens if the motherboard needs replacing? How will you recover your data? Backups?

Well, i mean I'm sure it's possible to backup the mac equivalent of a windows "certificate." I just don't want an external hardrive of mine with sensitive data to be defensless if it is stolen.

 

[Woodie]

EFS protected files are recoverable (with the keys) using any W2K or XP booted OS.

Boot into Windows from the internal/primary drive, connect the drive as an additional drive.
Import your keys (either a backup of the original keys or the backup of the recovery key).
And Windows does the rest.

Without access to the keys (meaning the original host machine or the backups), EFS protected files are well-protected.

 

[LASTGUY2GETPS2]

Originally posted by: LASTGUY2GETPS2
Okay, so I'm going to college and plan on bringing my external hard drive. It is currently formatted in NTFS. I am pretty sure that if I enable encryption on the drive it will only work on my laptop and not anyone else's. Aside from the incompatibilies that Apple has with the NTFS file system, is it possible to format a hard drive so that it only works on the computer it was formatted by?[/q]

?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: LASTGUY2GETPS2

Originally posted by: LASTGUY2GETPS2
Okay, so I'm going to college and plan on bringing my external hard drive. It is currently formatted in NTFS. I am pretty sure that if I enable encryption on the drive it will only work on my laptop and not anyone else's. Aside from the incompatibilies that Apple has with the NTFS file system, is it possible to format a hard drive so that it only works on the computer it was formatted by?

?

Basically, no.

Encrypt it. It's better than nothing.