02-12-2010 03:15 AM
Hi All,
I've just taken delivery of two of these devices to replace the tape backups at work. I specifically bought the 440's because all the websites said that they had full disk encryption. I have looked everywhere in the admin screen and cannot find any option to turn this on. Can I assume that it is on by default and cannot be turned off? We deal with confidential data and need to know that if our building were to be broken into and these devices stolen then the data could never be read without the theives knowing the admin password.
Many Thanks!
02-12-2010 07:35 AM
I have not seen that feature yet either, and I can only assume it is part of the BlackArmor Backup Software which I have not installed yet. I use Shadow Protect to backup my main workstation, which encrypts the disk images and stores them on the NAS, and restores from the NAS perfectly so far.
I will install the BackArmor backup on my other machines this week to see if thats where the encryption feature is.
I did find this statement in the backup software manual:
(Files/folders encryption is set in Properties -> General -> Advanced Attributes -> Encrypt contents to secure data).
02-22-2010 08:35 PM - edited 02-22-2010 08:40 PM
So thats where the encryption feature is. I found this article in a link that another user made.
We experimented with multiple volumes on the 440 by setting up two RAID 5 arrays that both utilized all four disks; however, we encrypted one of the volumes. The only way to encrypt a volume is to do so when you first create it; so if you want an encrypted volume on the 440, it means that you will have to first delete the preconfigured RAID 5 array. When a volume is encrypted, the encryption key is stored on a user-supplied USB flash drive connected to the device's front-mounted USB port. If the 440 is power-cycled after removing the USB flash drive that contains the encryption key, the data stored on encrypted volume will no longer be accessible until you plug the USB flash drive back in. If you lose the flash drive or its encryption key file is damaged or deleted, you can consider the data stored on the encrypted volume as irrevocably lost. So if you choose to use an encrypted volume, do so wisely and carefully.
This experiment also bore out some additional caveats for us. First of all, it easily took over five hours to create the two volumes. (It took the same amount of time to reset the device back to a single RAID 5 volume using all four drives, when we were done experimenting.) So if you are going to use multiple volumes, be sure to factor in the extra time needed to create the volumes--and those five-plus hours don't even include the time to format the volumes once they are created (which we found could be as much as another hour).
The second issue this brought to light is that the included documentation is significantly lacking. We found much of the documentation to be pretty light when it comes to discussing many of the device's features. In fact, other than mentioning that volume encryption is possible, we couldn't find mention of how to set it up anywhere in the documentation of even via Seagate's online support--we ultimately had to seek guidance from a contact we had at Seagate, who put us in touch with a Seagate tech.
I knew it had to be there somewhere!
12-06-2011 03:42 PM
See my other forum post here, in case you still haven't gotten encryption working.
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