krbailey

Q: Turning on FileVault on a PCIe SSD installed in a Mac Pro 4,1 (early 2009)

I've installed a PCIe SSD in my MacPro 4,1(early 2009) running ElCapitan.  I can boot from it and the boot speed has decreased dramatically.  I'm very happy with that.  However, if I try to turn on FileVault I can no longer boot from the drive.  I only see the disallowed symbol, and then I need to reboot to another drive and use Disk Utility to reformat the drive unencrypted before once again installing the OS anew.

I can encrypt the drive and read and write to it, if I don't try to boot from it.

The exact SSD I have installed is a Kingston Digital HyperX Predator 240 GB PCIe Gen2 x4 Solid State Drive 8-Inch SHPM2280P2H/240G.

I've installed a fresh new install of ElCapitan, and the very first thing I've done, before any migration assistant stuff, or restoring from time machine, was to try turning on FileVault and I got the same failure, so I'm sure it's not anything else installed on my system that is the conflict.

 

Is this a known limitation of the older firmware on my Mac?  Anyone heard of any way to update the EFI on an older mac to be able to decode an encrypted SSD?  Should I need to?

VIN,Mac Pro (Early 2009), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Sep 12, 2016 8:05 PM

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Q: Turning on FileVault on a PCIe SSD installed in a Mac Pro 4,1 (early 2009)

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  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 12, 2016 8:34 PM in response to krbailey
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    Sep 12, 2016 8:34 PM in response to krbailey

    How did you format that SSD initially? Does it have a Logical Volume group?

     

    $ Diskutil corestorage  list

  • by krbailey,

    krbailey krbailey Sep 12, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
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    Sep 12, 2016 8:42 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    If I format with disk utility OS X Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) I can read and write to the disk.  I can install ElCapitan on the drive, but I can not boot from it.  If I format the drive OS X Extended (Journaled) I can Install as before, but I can also successfully boot from it.  I've tried both formatting it initially as encrypted and then installing the OS, and I've tried formatting it unencrypted, installing the OS, booting from that drive, and then trying to turn on FileVault from system settings.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 13, 2016 7:45 AM in response to krbailey
    Level 9 (60,971 points)
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    Sep 13, 2016 7:45 AM in response to krbailey

    are you using Partition or Erase when you do this?

     

    what are the results of the terminal command I posted above? (You can cut and paste all but the dollar-sign prompt)

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 13, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 9 (60,971 points)
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    Sep 13, 2016 11:41 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    From where are you running Disk Utility while you are doing this formatting?

     

    There appears to be an inherent problem running it from the drive's own Recovery_HD.

  • by krbailey,

    krbailey krbailey Sep 13, 2016 7:22 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
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    Sep 13, 2016 7:22 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    The core storage list does not list my SSD.  I am currently using it as my startup drive and it is not encrypted.  It does list the other three encrypted drives I have installed (a 2TB time machine drive, a 1 TB file storage drive, and the factory 640GB drive that I am migrating from).  I also have a 1TB drive that I am currently using as an ElCapitan install drive that is not encrypted and does not show in the core storage list.  For completeness I have pasted the full report below.

     

    I have tried it with both partition and erase.

     

    I have created an ElCapitan install disk out of a spare HDD.  I boot to that and run disk util for formatting the drive and then to install the OS.

     

    CoreStorage logical volume groups (3 found)

    |

    +-- Logical Volume Group E80EEA46-1F26-48BD-9CE9-B5E2884E8938

    |   =========================================================

    |   Name:         Time Machine

    |   Status:       Online

    |   Size:         2000054960128 B (2.0 TB)

    |   Free Space:   9482240 B (9.5 MB)

    |   |

    |   +-< Physical Volume EA262A64-9A94-4191-A2B9-75D923B1E089

    |   |   ----------------------------------------------------

    |   |   Index:    0

    |   |   Disk:     disk2s2

    |   |   Status:   Online

    |   |   Size:     2000054960128 B (2.0 TB)

    |   |

    |   +-> Logical Volume Family 398E35DC-FAD9-45CA-B661-3D446193C453

    |       ----------------------------------------------------------

    |       Encryption Type:         AES-XTS

    |       Encryption Status:       Unlocked

    |       Conversion Status:       Complete

    |       High Level Queries:      Fully Secure

    |       |                        Passphrase Required

    |       |                        Accepts New Users

    |       |                        Has Visible Users

    |       |                        Has Volume Key

    |       |

    |       +-> Logical Volume 1859E667-97C0-487B-847A-2E10F5DECDC8

    |           ---------------------------------------------------

    |           Disk:                  disk5

    |           Status:                Online

    |           Size (Total):          1999693152256 B (2.0 TB)

    |           Revertible:            No

    |           LV Name:               Time Machine

    |           Volume Name:           Time Machine

    |           Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

    |

    +-- Logical Volume Group 23D2A778-44EF-42D1-AECD-4EB3C7E9AEC4

    |   =========================================================

    |   Name:         storage

    |   Status:       Online

    |   Size:         999860912128 B (999.9 GB)

    |   Free Space:   0 B (0 B)

    |   |

    |   +-< Physical Volume D5EB5C7E-EDD5-4CB4-9076-8990074424B9

    |   |   ----------------------------------------------------

    |   |   Index:    0

    |   |   Disk:     disk3s2

    |   |   Status:   Online

    |   |   Size:     999860912128 B (999.9 GB)

    |   |

    |   +-> Logical Volume Family 8336B99D-95DD-42E9-A582-664CCDA25C0D

    |       ----------------------------------------------------------

    |       Encryption Type:         AES-XTS

    |       Encryption Status:       Unlocked

    |       Conversion Status:       NoConversion

    |       High Level Queries:      Fully Secure

    |       |                        Passphrase Required

    |       |                        Accepts New Users

    |       |                        Has Visible Users

    |       |                        Has Volume Key

    |       |

    |       +-> Logical Volume 78A8EADF-1EF5-4531-B27A-F272E7F10145

    |           ---------------------------------------------------

    |           Disk:                  disk6

    |           Status:                Online

    |           Size (Total):          999709908992 B (999.7 GB)

    |           Revertible:            No

    |           LV Name:               storage

    |           Volume Name:           storage

    |           Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

    |

    +-- Logical Volume Group AF93E642-568E-4B42-AE8C-6CD0CF86BCDE

        =========================================================

        Name:         Macintosh HD

        Status:       Online

        Size:         639275270144 B (639.3 GB)

        Free Space:   4096 B (4.1 KB)

        |

        +-< Physical Volume 85469E7E-574A-4F54-850E-A779FD4438B7

        |   ----------------------------------------------------

        |   Index:    0

        |   Disk:     disk4s2

        |   Status:   Online

        |   Size:     639275270144 B (639.3 GB)

        |

        +-> Logical Volume Family DCCAE69D-F1CB-4F0F-9F8D-28165050D77C

            ----------------------------------------------------------

            Encryption Type:         AES-XTS

            Encryption Status:       Locked

            Conversion Status:       Complete

            High Level Queries:      Fully Secure

            |                        Passphrase Required

            |                        Accepts New Users

            |                        Has Visible Users

            |                        Has Volume Key

            |

            +-> Logical Volume DE4ADB7F-AE31-434E-A05A-C87A240B5D1D

                ---------------------------------------------------

                Disk:                  -none-

                Status:                Locked

                Size (Total):          638939721728 B (638.9 GB)

                Revertible:            Yes (unlock and decryption required)

                LV Name:               Macintosh HD

                Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 13, 2016 7:54 PM in response to krbailey
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    Sep 13, 2016 7:54 PM in response to krbailey

    Your last Logical Volume group looks the way I expected, but does not cover the EFI_Boot or Recovery HD partitions, if present on that drive. I would expect them to be OUTSIDE the Logical Volume Family to be accessible by the Boot Loader to get your Mac started before demanding the decryption password.

     

    To be bootable, it would need to have an additional physical Volume for EFI-Boot (so that it can be bootable that far without having to enter the password). If that drive also contains a recovery HD, it would need yet another physical Volume for Recovery HD as well, because that is generally outside the encrypted part of the drive.

     

    I am sorry I don't have a drive to compare it to, because I don't tend to run encrypted at all, so I have not bothered with making certain the logical Volume stuff is correct on my drives.

     

    Maybe another User has a bootable drive they can run:

    diskutil core storage list

      -- and --

    diskutil list

     

    so that you could compare.

  • by krbailey,

    krbailey krbailey Sep 13, 2016 7:51 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
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    Sep 13, 2016 7:51 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Thank you for your thoughts, but I'm not sure how to turn them into actions.  How would one go about setting the drive up as you suggest?

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Sep 13, 2016 8:03 PM in response to krbailey
    Level 9 (60,971 points)
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    Sep 13, 2016 8:03 PM in response to krbailey

    The way I know that works is to ignore Encryption as you initialize the drive and Install Mac OS, THEN enable FileVault later and wait for it to pass through and encrypt everything and mount the encrypted drive.

     

    Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support


    .