My Dell notebook shipped with a HDD that includes Full Disk Encryption. Can I upgrade it?

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I have a Dell Latitude E6510 that includes a fingerprint scanner and a Seagate SATA drive that includes Seagate's "DriveTrust' full-disk encryption technology. It's a 250GB drive that I'd like to upgrade to something larger and/or faster, possibly a SSD. However, it's a company requirement that I don't lose the full disk encryption features. I currently have to scan my fingerprint to even boot the computer. And I've been told that if the hard drive were to be removed and placed into another computer that it would be unreadable.

Am I able to upgrade to a new hard drive and have these encryption feature "just work" if I install it in my notebook? If so, which drives are compatible?

Thanks!

jamieb

Posted 2012-09-29T03:42:30.753

Reputation: 196

Question was closed 2012-09-30T18:51:03.940

2You should be talking to your IT from your description. I vote to close. – Xavierjazz – 2012-09-29T03:58:52.473

Your explanation is a bit unclear. Do you want to keep this type of full-disk encryption? – Mxx – 2012-09-29T03:59:42.440

@Xavierjazz I am IT. – jamieb – 2012-09-29T04:00:09.737

@Mxx Yes. Unfortunately I can't use something like TrueCrypt. – jamieb – 2012-09-29T04:00:45.947

Why can't you use full-disk TrueCrypt? Unfortunately, I don't have 1st hand experience with enabling that feature. If nobody will be able to answer you here, consider contacting your Dell rep and talk to them about this. They will always be happy to sell you additional stuff, so they can do some research on your behalf. ;) – Mxx – 2012-09-29T04:06:25.923

Answers

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Under http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/Product/latitude-e6510, click on "Serial ATA". There are firmware results listed for SEAGATE drives. I would use another SEAGATE that the firmware is compatible with, as ControlVault may be using the firmware to somehow control "DriveTrust".

On that same page are the drivers for ControlVault, under Security.

From what I can see, http://www.seagate.com/internal-hard-drives/laptop-hard-drives/momentus-laptop/?sku=ST9500423AS seems to be the biggest hard drive that you can use. There is a 750GB variant of that hard drive, but it doesn't support encryption and FIPS. (Click on Encryption/FIPS in the right navigation bar to highlight the models that are compatible.)

Sly

Posted 2012-09-29T03:42:30.753

Reputation: 470

Asked: 2012-09-29T03:42:30.753

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Active: 2016-04-30T08:07:30.953