File Share Encryption

We are thinking about using PGP Whole Disk Encryption , we have 1 tb HP removeable disks that we are backing up to. We want to encrypt the whole disk. How long does is take to encrypt a 1tb remove able disk. this is connecting via USB 2.0.

thanks

The following is from the PGP Desktop 10.2 for Windows User's Guide:

Calculate the Encryption Duration

Encryption is a time-consuming and CPU-intensive process. The larger the disk or partition being encrypted, the longer the encryption process takes. You should consider this as you schedule initial encryption of the disk.

Factors that may affect encryption speed include:

•                 the size of the disk or partition

•                 the processor speed and number of processors

•                 the number of system processes running on the computer

•                 the number of other applications running on the system

•                 the amount of processor time those other applications require

With an average system, an 80 GB boot disk or partition takes approximately three hours to encrypt using PGP Whole Disk Encryption (when no other applications are running). A very fast system, on the other hand, can easily encrypt such a disk or partition in less than an hour.

You can still use your system during encryption. Your system is somewhat slower than usual during the encryption process, although it is fully usable.

PGP Desktop automatically slows the encryption process if you are using the system. The encryption process is faster if you avoid using your computer during the initial encryption. The system returns to normal operation when the encryption process is complete.

If you decide to run other applications during the encryption process, those applications will probably run slightly slower than normal until the encryption process is over.

If you will not be using the computer during encryption, you can speed up initial encryption using the Maximum CPU Usage option, described in Setting Encryption Options (on page 136). The extra speed during encryption comes primarily by taking priority over other operations that your computer is performing.

this is a MBR , primary ntfs partition ?

this is a removable drive cartridge. HP RDX 1tb, it's NTFS, The computer is Server 2008 r2, 16gb Ram, 2.5ghz processor. We would be sure it's idle at the time we are trying to encrypt the drive..

Whats showing progress bar? how much time since encryption started?

I haven't started doing this yet. I was just trying to get some info on the product.

Make sure you dont encrypt the whole drive ! Encrypting several partitions and different filesystems will slow the process! .

Run encryption in C: drive. Dont encrypt HP TOOLS or  RECOVERY partitions.

I don't think you understand what we are wanting to encprypt, here's a link to what we have.  There is not going to be anything on the drive when we encrypt it. Wnat the whole drive encrypted, when we load the disk, we unclock it with a password and before we remove it we lock it back up

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/12169-304616-3755725-3755725-3755725-3741006.html?dnr=1

ok its an external drive.

so you are fine with tom´s post.

You should have a read so you know how much time will encryption last.

Do you have further questions on this?

If your disk is empty and you don't care about initially encrypting the empty portions/space of the hard drive  you can use the "--fast-mode" command-line switch to speed up the encryption.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH149100

Basically, the fast-mode option will only encrypt portions of the hard drive that are currently being used and skip over the empty sectors/space.

Of course, any subsequent writes (e.g. new files) to the hard drive will utilize encryption. Kind of like an encrypt as you use strategy.