What is the firevault on my mac for?

Question

Can anyone tell me how to properly use it? THANKS!

Answer 1

Yes, it is a file encryption utility that encrypts the contents of your home directory using the government standard AES 128 Bit Encryption. However, unless you work with sensitive data that you wouldn't wish people could access then I'd stay away from it. It's very difficult to work with & it slowed me way down when I had my home directory encrypted. It also messed up one of our Macs causing us to have to re-build their home directory. Also, it is true about losing your password & corruption of the disk image. Both of these could cause your data to enter into oblivion. It also will not properly backup with Time Machine I've been told. Simply put, it's overkill. If you need to encrypt some files then I'd highly recommend you visit Disk Utility inside your Utilities folder & simply create a disk image to store the sensitive files. It's faster, easier, less troublesome, & on Leopard you can encrypt up to AES 256 Bit Encryption which is twice as secure as AES 128.

Answer 2

Do you mean FileVault?  It completely encrypts your home folder (which includes your user's Desktop, Documents, Music, Movies, etc).  If you are the only one that uses your computer, I strongly recommend against using FileVault.  If you were to forget the password you'd lose access to all your data.  Also, I've seen FileVaults go corrupt and the owner could not get back any data from the drive (luckily she kept backups).  Unless you have very sensitive info on your Mac, there is little reason to risk the downsides of using FileVault.