The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Full Disk Encryption?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by Paladin2, Aug 25, 2008.

  1. Paladin2

    Paladin2 Guest

    Reputations:
    0
    Does anyone have a pointer to the specs of the Lenovo 200GB FDE drive? Is it 128 or 256 bit? AES?

    I am wondering if anyone is using this drive and their experienced with Vista and XP? Any issues? Pros and cons?

    Thanks.
     
    Paladin2, Aug 25, 2008
    #1
  2. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

    Reputations:
    2,291
    Messages:
    3,023
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    106
    The seagate spec sheet on the FDE drives list full hardware AES 128 bit encryption. Not sure on the performance bit though.
     
    dietcokefiend, Aug 25, 2008
    #2
  3. Paladin2

    Paladin2 Guest

    Reputations:
    0
    Hi Kevin,

    Thanks for the great review on the T500. I ordered a T400 last night.

    So it's a Seagate drive. I am thinking whether it would be better to use Bitlocker or a FDE drive or no encryption and was wondering what people's experiences have been.
     
    Paladin2, Aug 25, 2008
    #3
  4. Lew

    Lew Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    193
    Messages:
    733
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    How could this be? Seagate's spec page suggests their FDE line maxes out at 160GB 5400rpm. Lenovo lists the FDE drive as 200GB at 7200rpm.

    I suspect the 200GB/7200 FDE drive is Hitachi 7K200 model (not all 7k200's have BDE, see here for more info)

    Personally, I think it is wise to use some form of encryption on a laptop. Especially so if you're not absolutely positive you will be able to keep all personal and financial data encrypted.

    I don't know enough to comment on on-disk FDE vs Bitlocker.
     
    Lew, Aug 25, 2008
    #4
  5. Paul386

    Paul386 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    38
    Messages:
    440
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Bitlocker requires an additional hard drive for the initial (unencrpyted) boot.
     
    Paul386, Aug 25, 2008
    #5
  6. nicodemus

    nicodemus Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    25
    Messages:
    129
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    If the hard disk FDE is using a hardware crypto module (which for the added cost, I would hope it is), it's faster than a software implementation like Bitlocker.
     
    nicodemus, Aug 25, 2008
    #6
  7. michelkenny

    michelkenny Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    99
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Additional partition, not additional drive. The Bitlocker wizard will resize your current partitions for this.
     
    michelkenny, Aug 25, 2008
    #7
  8. Paladin2

    Paladin2 Guest

    Reputations:
    0
    That makes more sense. Who would carry around another drive with a laptop just to boot.
     
    Paladin2, Aug 25, 2008
    #8