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I use SSD to boot up with. Removed CD-ROM drive and put 1TB disk in that spot. This 2nd disk is where my user data is. I want to file vault this drive. When attempting to enable file vault there is no option to choose other disk besides boot disk. Is there a way to file vault another disk? I have MBP 17" Core i7 and OS X 10.9.
Linc Davis wrote:
Right-click the volume icon and select Encrypt... from the contextual menu.
Thanks for that hint. Sometimes things are easier than expected. Linc or others, can you tell me if this right-click option is FileVault2 or is it some other encryption that's being used? If so, which?
Right-click the volume icon and select Encrypt... from the contextual menu.
But now I have to figure how to upgrade the boot partion on this 2nd drive to OS X 10.9 recovery. It was SL.
To encrypt a bootable volume, boot from it and activate FileVault.
Hi Linc, the 1TB drive was Snow Leopard bootable. I installed 10.9 on the SSD and just pointed the user account to the home folder on the 1TB drive. I would have to upgrade the boot partition on the 1TB drive from SL to Mavericks to use File Vault 2 right? The encrypt option did come up when I did as you first suggested, but it said the volumne must first have "A Recovery System for the targeted disk is required" <OK>. Maybe I just boot up on the 1TB with Snow Leopard and install Mavericks to it. I had kept SL around for some old power PC legacy apps that no longer work in Mt Lion and above.
And the version of File Vault with Snow Leopard had major draw backs vs the new File Vault 2. The original File Vault only encrypted the user's home folder where File Vault 2 does the entire drive. File restores from the 1st file vault meant an entire user content had to be restored when you only wanted 1 file.
I would have to upgrade the boot partition on the 1TB drive from SL to Mavericks to use File Vault 2 right?
Yes.
Hi Linc. All is done and working fine. Thanks again for the excellent help!
Oh boy. Something happened after I thought all was ok. In between booting both disks, after upgrading the 1TB from SL to 10.9, my SSD boot, which is 10.9, account pw does not work. I have to login as admin, unlock the 1TB encrypted drive, then login as my regular account. Furthermore I cannot change my regular account password from the SSD boot - I have to boot from the 1TB to change the regular account pw. My guess is this is something to do with both boot disks using the same user profile on the 1TB disk. It is possible iCloud might be playing into this too. But why does my regular account login password work only after I login as admin, unlock the encrypted drive, then login with regular account?
Last thing I recall doing after logging in with regular account booting from SSD was when message came up to unlock the 1TB drive I checked remember in key chain. Before that I was able to boot from either disk and login fine.
When you activated FileVault, you were prompted to select the users who would be able to unlock the volume. Apparently you didn't select one of the users you wanted to have that authority. There's no way to do it retroactively through the graphical user interface except by deactivating FileVault and then activating again, a process that may take several hours. It can be done more quickly through the command line, but I don't recommend that procedure to people with no command-line experience. If you want to try it nevertheless, the instructions are here:
I did add the account. I am totally comfortable with command line so I added it again (thanks for the link) sudo fdesetup add -usertoadd myusername. It added fine. Only the 1TB drive is encrypted, not the SSD drive. The SSD drive is what I boot up for just OS X and my VMware Win7. User profile is on 1TB for both drives. I still believe the issue is that when I added the user account it got mixed up between what boot drive manages the vault. Both drives are now 10.9 (the 1TB used to be SL) and have the same user account. But, the UUID is different and I cannot re add the user account from the SSD side because it is not encrypted. I was able to boot from both drives fine, just enter the disk encryption password. This new problem started when I checked the box to remember the account/password in keychain.
BTW: when you right click the drive to encrypt from the finder you do not get the same steps as you do when you encrypt from system preferences, Security & Privacy. There is no recovery key given and option to register with Apple etc. Only the boot drive is available to encrypt from System Preferences and thus your suggestion to do it from finder contextual menu. I can still get my login but I have to first login as Admin, enter the disk pw, then switch user to my account.
I need to figure a way to manage the vault on the 1TB from the booted non vaulted SSD drive so when I fdesetup add the account it will auth from that UUID.
fdesetup only acts on the current boot volume.
File vault a second disk (besides boot disk)
