File Vault

[tyler550]

Hi everyone

I'm going to turn on the file vault in my mac but I've read that the encryption process can take days.
Will I be able to use my mac while the process is taking place,specifically downloading/saving files to my hard drive or will the encryption process hinder these activities?
Thnx.

 

[JohnDS]

It should only take a few hours if you have a reasonably new Mac and you can continue to work.

 

[tyler550]

Thnx for responding

Define reasonably? I have a mid 2011....It started of with a few days but it quickly dropping to 11 hours....Now sitting on 7 hours....It's gonna be a looooooong wait. I've read that it resumes after sleep/shut down so that's a plus.
Just out of curiosity,if i were to ever switch off file vault will it take hours to switch off or is the process much faster than encrypting ?

 

[JohnDS]

Don't know the answer to your second question. Let it run overnight while on power and set it not to sleep.

 

[NoBoMac]

I have a 2008 MBP, it came with a 250GB HDD. When I turned on FileVault for that, it took about 7.5 hours to encrypt. When I put in a 250GB SSD, it took quite a bit less ( less than 3hrs, if I recall correctly).

I did decrypt once, and it took a long time on the HDD, but don't recall how long it took. Guessing it was close to same time as encrypt, since it's the same algorithm, just going in reverse.

 

[KALLT]

You can just turn it on, reboot and use your Mac normally. You do not have to pay attention to this and can just put the Mac to sleep whenever you want. It will resume and complete it automatically.

 

[Weaselboy]

Just out of curiosity,if i were to ever switch off file vault will it take hours to switch off or is the process much faster than encrypting ?

It takes hours to unencrypt also if you turn off FV.