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While shopping for an external HDD I've noticed some models have this feature (hardware encryption). Being a type of fella who only uses HDDs in general for storing data, with some hopes he will still be able to access them 10 years later, can anyone tell me what that does?
Does that mean the data on the drive is automatically encrypted or ?
If, for example, something would happen to a drive, and one would need to take it to a specialized store that deals with data recovery, would they be able to make sense of it?
I'd appreciate your input on this, and also on issus I've maybe forgotten to mention.
Rook
Posted 2014-03-20T14:18:59.193
Reputation: 21 622
What are you confused about exactly about the hardware encryption? If something happen to do the drive you would have to provide them the information to decrypt the information, otherwise the data would be random noise, just like it would be random noise if you used TrueCrypt or Bitocker on it. – Ramhound – 2014-03-20T15:34:13.977
@Ramhound - If after buying a harddrive, I delete all the software from it (as I usually do), and keep using it that way ... and something happens to it ... after taking it to a "recovery shop" would they be able to get my data off of it? Unscrambled (if I haven't setup anything in that regard)? In other words, can I use it as a regular drive, so it doesn't modify my data in any way? – Rook – 2014-03-20T15:44:02.943
If you don't encrypt the drive, which requires specific steps to do, then the data is not encrypted. – Ramhound – 2014-03-20T15:48:36.497
@Ramhound - And the "hardware encryption" (whatever that is) just gets bypassed? – Rook – 2014-03-20T15:59:19.300
2You have to actually enable the encryption, provide it a password, then perform the encryption. The drive is not encrypted until this step happens. This is done with the supplied software with the drive. – Ramhound – 2014-03-20T16:06:48.687
@Ramhound - Got it. Thanks. If you want put the gist of these comments as an answer and I'll accept it. – Rook – 2014-03-20T16:10:03.327
There really isn't an answer to this question that I could write that would meet the level of quality that I require before I post an answer on this site. You can answer it yourself. – Ramhound – 2014-03-20T16:19:26.633