cerna_gora
Level 1
(11 points)
Q: FileVault and Hardware Raid
Hello, I'm thinking of purchasing a Pegasus R4 8TB external RAID drive, but I keep reading that FileVault encryption doesn't work with RAID. This is a bit of a deal breaker for me, but I'm starting to question the info I'm reading. Every article I have found about this topic either doesn't make a distinction between hardware and software raid, or says explicitly that FileVault doesn't work with software RAID, not to mention that most of these articles are 4-5 years old.
I've never owned an external RAID system, but from my understanding, a RAID system with a hardware controller should just appear as a single hard drive, not a logical volume, and I guess that's why I don't trust all these different sources saying FileVault won't work with RAID. Can anyone confirm for sure if FileVault works with hardware raid?
Duane
Level 10
(124,018 points)
I'm pretty sure that FileVault is only for the startup drive. Use FileVault to encrypt the startup disk on your Mac - Apple Support
The information in the following article confirms that it is only for the startup drive and does not work with RAID drives -> http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/enable-filevault-encryption-mac/
