Hi, 2009/3/26 Rob Kampen <rkampen at kampensonline.com>: > > 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! At the end of that article: http://headworx.slupik.com/2008/02/fde-full-disk-encryption-hard-drive.html there are three useful links which maybe will clarify how FDE works. from the last link: "In short, it is a security solution that fully encrypts your entire Hard Disk Drive (HDD), including the Operating System etc. It is one of the "most transparent" encryption products you can get for your computer. Once installed you just have to authenticate once before the boot time, and if successful the HDD is unlocked and behaves like any other HDD. You don't have to worry about what files to encrypt and what not to encrypt. With FDE everything is encrypted. It is for the same reason that the US Government is currently conducting a competition of various FDE solutions to select and implement the best one." Cheers, -- === Ioan Vancea http://www.vioan.ro