Adam Wildavsky

Q: Boot from an encrypted USB 3.0 drive?

I have formatted a USB 3.0 drive using Disk Utility's MacOS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted). I have copied my internal disk to it using Super Duper. Now I would like to be able to boot from it. I cannot figure out how. I can set it as my startup disk using System Prefences, but that Mac still starts up from the internal drive. When I hold down the Option key while booting only the internal drive shows up. I'm using MacOS 10.8.5 on a 2013 MacBook Air. Any tips?

Posted on Nov 19, 2013 8:03 AM

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Q: Boot from an encrypted USB 3.0 drive?

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  • by Jordan klein,

    Jordan klein Jordan klein Apr 8, 2014 5:29 PM in response to Adam Wildavsky
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Apr 8, 2014 5:29 PM in response to Adam Wildavsky

    I've had the same problem.  I can boot from my USB3 drive when it's not encrypted with FileVault2 but not when it is.  I've tried in two different installs of OS X Mavericks, and the result has been the same.

     

    I've been using Carbon Copy Cloner to backup my Late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro.  It's latest generation, so boots fine from an unencrypted USB3 drive.  I don't have a USB2 hub so I can't test that.  However, since the Mac boots just fine when the drive isn't encrypted, I was hoping it would boot when it was.  But, alas, it doesn't show up when holding the Option key at boot.  I also tried using Startup Disk and selecting it there, but it still booted from the internal drive.

     

    I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's boot loader was the culprit still.  It could be that the boot loader supports unencrypted drives, but not encrypted ones on USB3.  Not sure but it wouldn't surprise me.

  • by Adam Wildavsky,

    Adam Wildavsky Adam Wildavsky Nov 22, 2015 9:26 PM in response to Jordan klein
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 22, 2015 9:26 PM in response to Jordan klein

    Everything seems to be working properly as of El Capitan. I can boot from an external encrypted USB 3.0 drive. OS X now knows to ask for its password during the boot process.

     

    My drive showed up with the name "[Update Needed]" in the choose startup disk dialog (pressing the option key during boot) but I was still able to boot from it. I managed to get its name to appear by going into System Preferences/Security & Privacy/FileVault after booting from the drive.

  • by Al Q,

    Al Q Al Q Nov 28, 2015 11:05 AM in response to Adam Wildavsky
    Level 1 (105 points)
    Nov 28, 2015 11:05 AM in response to Adam Wildavsky

    Thanks for the update.

     

    First the good news: I just verified that I too can now boot my mid-2012 Macbook Pro from an encrypted clone of my boot drive (made with Super Duper!) using a USB3 drive with no intermediate USB2 hub. So with El Capitan Apple has eliminated that annoying glitch.

     

    Now the bad news. It boots really slowly. In fact I see no significant difference in boot speed whether I connect the USB3 drive directly or through a USB2 hub. So I am pretty sure that Apple took the easy way out and chose to boot USB3 drives in USB2 mode. And the drive seems to be running at USB2 speed even after I log in, when OS X certainly has full USB3 support available.

     

    Of course it could be that my USB3 drive is just a slow drive and it is the drive not the Mac that is limiting performance. It's a "slim" Seagate 2TB portable, so I don't expect it to be a speed demon. I will try some tests and see what I find. For its main purpose of backup, speed is less important than reliability plus small form factor that will let me carry it everywhere. I'm using .5 TB for a clone, and 1.5 TB for Time Machine. 

  • by Adam Wildavsky,

    Adam Wildavsky Adam Wildavsky Nov 28, 2015 5:47 PM in response to Al Q
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 28, 2015 5:47 PM in response to Al Q

    Slow for me as well. I just ordered a 500GB external USB 3 SSD drive from Amazon for $170. I learned about it courtesy of Wirecutter.com. I'll report back on how much faster it is.

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