At Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:04:06 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > > > > nate wrote: > > 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 > > > > > Excuse a really dumb question, how does this provide me with security? > I assume it still uses the normal SATA interface and thus the OS writes > to the drive as normal, but now it is encrypted onto the physical > media..... so now I steal the laptop, or just the physical drive, plug > it into my SATA controller and voila read all the encrypted data off the > drive??? > I am obviously missing something - there must be a key somewhere off the > drive for this to work as a securely encrypted system. > Flumoxed! >From what little I gathered from the promo PDF, there was some mumbling about the BIOS. I'm guessing that the drive somehow requests a passkey during system startup somehow. But this is only a guess. > > _______________________________________________ > > CentOS mailing list > > CentOS at centos.org > > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > > > > begin:vcard > fn:Rob Kampen > n:Kampen;Rob > email;internet:rob at kampensonline.net > tel;cell:407-341-3815 > version:2.1 > end:vcard > > > MIME-Version: 1.0 > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/