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Taking LOOONG time to encrypt 1TB. Overheating?

A

alphafly

Junior Member
Hey, all --

I'm encrypting a 1TB drive, and at the rate it's currently going, it'll take a total of about 48 hours to complete. I'm just worried that either the hard drive will burn up, or worse yet, my entire computer will be in flames when I get home. Am I just being paranoid about this? I've never left a hard drive working for so many hours straight.

Note: I don't have a special setup with extra holes or multiple fans running -- it's just a regular Dell computer (with all the drive bays filled).

Thanks for any info.
 
Generally speaking the drive is spinning anyhow, this isnt going to cause a fire or anything like that.

Now, do you REALLY NEED all that data encrypted? Your of course risking losing it all if you forget your passphrase / lose your account (etc) depending on the encryption system you are using.

Bill
 
bsobel, thanks for your reply.

I had thought about partitioning the drive first, but wanted to keep all my files listed together. And I really didn't think that the encryption process would take so long....

So how many hours straight can a hard drive be engaged before I should worry about heating issues? I heard the drive spinning sort of loudly before I left for work this morning, so the encryption process seems to be really "working" my system.

I've heard stories of people's computers burning up, so that's why I'm just a little worried...

 
Presumably the volume header will be backed up and the drive cloned.

Seems a long time to run so intensively to be sure, but as long as it does not exceed the manufacturer's temperature spec it should be fine. SpeedFan, for one, will show temps as well as SMART data. The encryption program may include a pause function so it does not have to be done all at once but as long as it remains cool enough I wouldn't worry so long as a duplicate exists if there is any data present already.
 
Auric, thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately, no pause button -- just Cancel (I'm using DriveCrypt, by the way.) It's a brand new drive with no data on it, so I'm not worried about any loss at this point.

 
No need to worry about anything burning up, that seems a bit unrealistic. Just make sure the power isn't interrupted!
 
Originally posted by: Auric
I'm curious why you chose DriveCrypt over other options such as FreeOTFE and TrueCrypt?
Click to expand...

Auric -- my initial decision was between PGP and DriveCrypt, and DriveCrypt seemed to have better features. I had heard about TrueCrypt, but, at the time, I had the impression that a pay software would be more "secure" than free open source. (I also wasn't sure if TrueCrypt offered whole disk encryption.) Also, does TC offer a pause feature in the middle of encrypting?

As for FreeOTFE, I didn't know about it.
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
No need to worry about anything burning up, that seems a bit unrealistic. Just make sure the power isn't interrupted!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reassurance, Roguestar. It's been 24 straight hours of encrypting, and no smell of smoke yet 😉

I think that next time I'll open the case up first so that I can let more air in. Do you know how long a hard drive can handle continuous processing without any adverse effects?
 
You'd think such a encrypting application would WARN you or have some kind of pause function build in, to give the HD some rest, if it were dangerous to encrypt and thus make a HDD work for 48 hours straight. Of course, this isn't much reassurance, but it only seems logical to me ... This would be better of in the memory and STORAGE forum btw, but with as many responses as you've gotten so far, I'll leave it in here.
 
Originally posted by: alphafly
Originally posted by: Roguestar
No need to worry about anything burning up, that seems a bit unrealistic. Just make sure the power isn't interrupted!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reassurance, Roguestar. It's been 24 straight hours of encrypting, and no smell of smoke yet 😉

I think that next time I'll open the case up first so that I can let more air in. Do you know how long a hard drive can handle continuous processing without any adverse effects?
Click to expand...

Google run theirs all the time and don't think it makes much of a difference 🙂.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6376021.stm :thumbsup:
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Google run theirs all the time and don't think it makes much of a difference 🙂.
Click to expand...
If the drive is adequately cooled, it should be fine. But I had a brand new Maxtor drive (one of the heat-sensitive models that they made a few years ago, where the Maxtor controller chip would overheat) go bad while copying 200GB of files. After a few hours, the drive was too hot to touch. And totally dead.

Continuous use was also blamed for the IBM DeathStar failures of several years ago. IBM told customers that the drive was only designed for eight hours a day of use.
 
Originally posted by: alphafly
Originally posted by: Auric
I'm curious why you chose DriveCrypt over other options such as FreeOTFE and TrueCrypt?
Click to expand...

Auric -- my initial decision was between PGP and DriveCrypt, and DriveCrypt seemed to have better features. I had heard about TrueCrypt, but, at the time, I had the impression that a pay software would be more "secure" than free open source. (I also wasn't sure if TrueCrypt offered whole disk encryption.) Also, does TC offer a pause feature in the middle of encrypting?

As for FreeOTFE, I didn't know about it.
Click to expand...

There is the counterpoint that open source may be more secure because it cannot be influenced by The Man. However, while TC has generally been reliable, WDE is a relatively new feature and revisions have since been frequent. TC does indeed sport a pause feature.

As to heat 'n' such, one would expect that a Dell would be qualified for rigorous duty but even so it may depend upon the intended use of the model.

Yeah, I remember the IBM DeskStar kerfuffle. It has actually not been uncommon for manufacturers to not rate for continuous duty. As to Maxtor, were not those actually Seagate or was that a seperate case of their chips overheating? In any case, Seagate are generally known to run hot whereas on the other extreme Samsung are unlikely to be a worry in that regard. And yes, while the Google study showed there was no correlation betwixt heat and failure that is only inclusive of specified range, not exceeding it which is the concern.
 
Originally posted by: Auric

There is the counterpoint that open source may be more secure because it cannot be influenced by The Man. However, while TC has generally been reliable, WDE is a relatively new feature and revisions have since been frequent. TC does indeed sport a pause feature
...
Click to expand...

Auric, that's what it was -- when I had been researching WDE a while back, TC didn't offer this feature, so I crossed it off my list...

Thanks for confirming that TC does have a pause feature. I may try it out once their WDE becomes more stable.

Thanks.

 
Originally posted by: RebateMonger
If the drive is adequately cooled, it should be fine. But I had a brand new Maxtor drive (one of the heat-sensitive models that they made a few years ago, where the Maxtor controller chip would overheat) go bad while copying 200GB of files. After a few hours, the drive was too hot to touch. And totally dead.
...
Click to expand...

Mine's a brand new Seagate.

Thanks for the heads-up about not trying to transfer 200GB of data at once. If it has a 32MB cache, how much data can I safely move at a time?
 
Originally posted by: alphafly
Mine's a brand new Seagate.

Thanks for the heads-up about not trying to transfer 200GB of data at once. If it has a 32MB cache, how much data can I safely move at a time?
Click to expand...
I didn't make it clear that my Maxtor was also stacked, with near-zero ventilation. Not a great idea with a drive that can't stand to be overheated.

As long as you have a properly ventilated drive that's not known for overheating issues, it shouldn't make any difference.
 
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