[CentOS] Dell 120 GB 5400 RPM Encrypted Serial ATA Hard Drive

[nate]

Agile Aspect wrote:
> Hi - I've been asked to re-partition a
>
>     Dell 120 GB 5400 RPM Encrypted Serial ATA Hard Drive
>
> and install CentOS 5 on the new partition.
>
> It's a Dell Lattitude E5400 laptop.
>
> Is this even possible with encrypted drives?

How is it encrypted? Some new laptops come with drive encryption
built into the hardware which I believe is totally transparent
to the OS, sample device:
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_momentus_5400_fde_3.pdf

Looking at this:
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/Internal_Hard_Drives/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&sku=341-6557

The drive they have seems similar, so I would expect
re-partitioning to work fine, though of course backup any
important data before trying.

nate