It has come to my attention that a lot of manufacturers like to push hardware encryption on their external hard drives but don't fall into the trap. In my opinion hardware encryption has to be the stupidest and most useless technology and I don't see any reason for its implementation save for manufacturers to tout another useless feature. It was created with the reasoning that if the drive inside the enclosure is stolen the thieves won't be able to decrypt it…but wait if the thieves steal the drive they also take the enclosure so it doesn't really do anything for you except make your life a living hell if something goes wrong. The problem is that if the enclosure fails you will not be able to just install it as an internal drive in your system as the enclosure contains the decryption hardware with a unique code that is needed to decrypt the hard drive's contents. You can still use the hard drive but you lose all of your precious data. If you desire encryption there are many software encryption applications such as TrueCrypt that can provide you with piece of mind instead of a headache if something happens. Unfortunately, a lot of manufacturers are jumping on the hardware encryption bandwagon so there are less and less choices for people not looking for an experience resembling a trip to the dentist. Hopefully this advice can save you guys some hassle.

 

I bought an empty external hard drive enclosure and installed my own spare hard drive into it, saves all that nonsense with firmware encryption. You are probably more likely to lose data from a harddrive failure rather than someone stealing it, and even external drives will fail.

 

Chances are that you confuse encryption with 4K<->512 mapping (that's why you cannot read the data without the bridge chip of the enclosure), because there are almost no more drives with hardware encryption around.

 

No I'm not confusing it though that is another valid concern for people not on the latest hardware and software technologies. The hardware encrypts the contents of the drive with a unique key provided by the enclosure chip. And there are many new hard drives that are coming out with hardware encryption. What about all the new Western Digital drives?

 

I totally agree man but some people are nervous about that sort of thing so I just figured I'd give them a little advice. I personally oftentimes purchase an enclosure and an internal drive to go in it as you tend to get a better drive that way too. The latest externals are also not being made to strict standards. The new Western Digitals have Caviar Greens inside which are really slow and have hardware encryption and the Hitachi externals have some stupid bug where they constantly after a certain period of time disconnect from the computer and the only way to get them back up is to literally pull out the power to the drive and plug it back in because the idiots didn't include an off switch.

I know that thieves stealing a drive isn't likely but that it is a selling point for these drives so I was just trying to explain why it's stupid. I always remind people to couple a good external with a solid backup strategy to offer maximum protection with less headaches. These days disk failure can be a catastrophe with the huge sizes of external drives.

 

i use this
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401000,00.asp

lenovo usb 3.0 hard disk WITH hardware encryption... keep all your music secure from theft and viewing.. also any "other" stuff you dont want people to see ;)

as to you thinking its pointless, thats your opinion, i find it useful

 

Just because you think it's pointless doesn't make it so. Enclosures fail all of the time and then you're stuck with a drive that you can't decrypt the contents of. If you are a power user then you could also still get the benefits of encryption with a software program such as True Crypt though obviously the experience won't be as transparent. Honestly, if this is the reaction I get when I try to save people some time and heartache I'll make it a point to not be helpful next time.

 

I also became aware of this "strong" selling point when I did some research on the latest trend in external drives. I just need something to hold my data in and enough space for me to keep saving stuff that I probably don't use :dancing: . I recommend that people should probably just buy the enclosure and drive as separate items. Only because your most likely to get a more reliable drive in the long run. Both methods usually cost around the same, so I guess its all a preference thang. People stealing external drives seems weird and rare, but its enough for people to probably over pay for an external with added security features.

 

Yeah for sure I'm all for enclosures and I suggest them all the time. I just know that some users are not confident in that kind of stuff so they tend to go the easy route of just picking something up from a store. Everywhere you go you hear them tout the theft angle and I thought it was really dumb and people might not know what they're getting into. Man I'm definitely not trying to post anything helpful anymore. I hope Dan The Douchebag's hard drive enclosure goes tomorrow and he feels like the asshole that he is. That would just make my life.

 

Like the great singer from Slipknot said, "People= Shit"

That statement keeps becoming more real and real as time goes on for me. Opinions will always be opinions and jerks will always be jerks, so there is no point in getting hell bent over running into another one here. But in all honesty I think Dan01 is just expressing himself the best way he can and although it might not seem right, its probably just who he is as a person. For that reason you should excuse Dan01 for letting everything in his life lead him to be the guy that post rude and useless remarks over the internet from time to time. I don't blame him either, because in this day and age its much easier to be that way than to be a real/humble human being. Please don't take what I say the wrong way Dan01, I mean no harm or disrespect, I'm just simply observing the situation between you and Catalyst.

Back to the topic. It doesn't matter what you get in the end, just as long as you get one its all good. You might not need one now but a couple sound libraries, plugins, software, and sessions later. Your gonna have about 3 just to make sure you don't run out of space again

 

Trust me...more sympathetic I could not be.
I don't even like people but you wouldn't be able to tell that from my dialogue (up until Dan was seriously disrespectful). Believe me you could not possibly imagine what I have been through in my life so if anyone can use that as an excuse it's me. Maybe I'm more open to working on my defects...not that people don't deserve to be disliked. I'm just trying to relearn that it's ignorant and unhealthy to close yourself off from the rest of humanity just because of some (or even most) people. In the end human beings are social animals and as much as I may sometimes hate that fact, people in isolation have more health problems, die younger and generally have a lower quality of life. It's like Bob Marley said: "The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for." It just really grinds me gears when you're trying to help people, you waste your time writing all this info and then you have someone come and not only take a crap on what you did but also insult your intelligence. Like it takes a real genius to insult someone over their hard work when the only contribution the accuser made to the conversation was a hateful comment. That actually leads back to a conversation that Alraun and I were having about whether war is inherent to the human condition. Here is proof that it is and that you can't always reason with it. There are people you can reason with and there are people who understand only brute force. You've read my stuff on here and I'm sure that you would agree that I am nothing if not nice and respectful even in the face of real hateful stuff. It just gets on my nerves when it happens time and time again only because people hide behind anonymity. That is a sign of weakness in my eyes and indicative of behavior that is childish at best.

You're good people so you must not totally believe that everyone is shit. You've definitely always been nothing but respectful and I'm sure you could also use your experiences to validate your dislike of human beings and act accordingly with everyone you meet. However, you're better than that and you act like it. That's really admirable. All the best.

I was never a huge metal fan (more when I was younger) but I do like some bands. I guess I've just always favored Industrial and its offshoots. However, I do have a favorite Slipknot song :
Slipknot - Wait And Bleed (Original Cut)