koffiejunkie
Executive Member
Yesterday I got a 750GB drive to replace the 500GB one. As some of you know, I've been using full disc encryption (FDE) for a while, first with a Seagate FDE drive that supports hardware encryption, with 3rd party software to boot with, and now with Lion's built-in FDE.
I found out, the long way, that SuperDuper! doesn't handle this at all. The problem is two-fold:
I suspect that the recovery partition is used to store the boot code. After copying the drive with SuperDuper! I was able to boot off it. It wasn't encrypted, of course, but I didn't think that would be a problem - I can just re-enable Filevault, right? Wrong. It gives an error saying that Filevault cannot be enabled because of some problem creating the recovery partition.
So here's what I did:
I suspect that there is a better way, now that I know the limitations. If I do a fresh install on my backup drive, reboot and enable Filevault, and then start backing up to it with SuperDuper!, I'll have the boot code in place, and everything else will be up to date. I'll try that once I replace my backup drives with bigger ones.
I found out, the long way, that SuperDuper! doesn't handle this at all. The problem is two-fold:
- It doesn't know about the encryption - it simply copies the content of your drive to the backup drive.
- It doesn't know about the recovery partition
I suspect that the recovery partition is used to store the boot code. After copying the drive with SuperDuper! I was able to boot off it. It wasn't encrypted, of course, but I didn't think that would be a problem - I can just re-enable Filevault, right? Wrong. It gives an error saying that Filevault cannot be enabled because of some problem creating the recovery partition.
So here's what I did:
- Boot off install media
- Format the drive with disc utility
- Install
- When asked to create a user, choose a name other than what you had on your old drive <=== Important!
- Boot into the new install, enable Filevault, and reboot.
- Open the migration assistant and import everything
- Open System Preferences --> Security --> Filevault and click the button at the bottom (I don't recall what it says now). Enable your regular user(s).
- Reboot and all should be good.
I suspect that there is a better way, now that I know the limitations. If I do a fresh install on my backup drive, reboot and enable Filevault, and then start backing up to it with SuperDuper!, I'll have the boot code in place, and everything else will be up to date. I'll try that once I replace my backup drives with bigger ones.
