FileVault working directory

[nox]

Hi guys,

I tried to turn on FileVault last night. It didn't push thru due to lack of space. Worse it didn't recover about a 1g worth of hard disk space (I had 2.7g prior to running filevault, and now only has 1g left). Am using the stock iBook 40g hdisk so that 1g wasted and unrecovered makes me a bit sad.

I already did a cold reboot, cleaned tmp dirs and run onyx, and still haven't recovered the space.

Would be really glad if you can give a hint to what directory or file FileVault uses for temporarily constructing an encrypted image.


Thanks in advance.

cheers!

nox

[elbert]

Well, too late to tell you this, but I tell all my clients to keep away from FileVault, unless one has extremely sensitive data in the HD.

The best and simplest solution I can give you is to back up all your data and reinstall OS X. There really is no simple fix for FileVault.

[elbert]

Here's another, more tedious method.

1. log into the FilaVault encrypted account
2. option drag (copy) the entire (encrypted) home folder into another drive.
3. using System Preferences, create a new user account account (with administration access).
4. Write down FileVault encrypted home folder's long and short name since you'll need this later.
5. Delete the original Filevault encrypted home folder.
6. log in using the other admin account
7. Create a folder with the exact same short name as the home folder you deleted in the Users folder.
8. Option drag (copy) all your old folders (desktop, documents, movies, etc.) from the old home folder into the new one.
9. In System Preferences, make a new account with the exact username and short name as the old one (make sure to enable Allow user to administer)
10 You will be prompted with a message that says "A folder in the Users already exists, would you like to use this?" Answer OK.

You'll need to perform a permission repair after.

HTH.

[lamski]

The way Filevault works is that the encrypted home folder is actually a disk image (.dmg) that has encryption turned on. At startup time, the .dmg is mounted and is treated as a regular folder. When you shutdown, OS X performs the necessary cleanup of any excess space from the .dmg file. If you look at the properties of a filevault-enabled folder, you'll see that the path to the folder points to a sparseimage.dmg file.

In your case, the conversion to filevault was not successful since you ran out of space before the sparseimage could be successfully created. There must be a partially created sparseimage.dmg file somewhere in your Mac HD. You can use spotlight to search for the file and you can probably safely delete it since it's not actually used for anything. But just to be safe, you should still create a backup before deleting it.

[nox]

thanks for the advice guys.

@lamski tried to use spotlight and old fashioned unix 'find' to find all .dmg files on the disk and couldn't find one. was really expecting it would be in tmp, since copying files over the network (ftp for example), usually creates a cache on that directory. is there an os x utilitty that shows the currently accessed files by a running program?

thanks in advance!

cheers!

nox

[lamski]

Nox,

Could you try this in Finder: Click on Go -> Go to Folder then type /Users/.<user name>. You should be able to see <user name>.sparseimage.

[nox]

Nox,

Could you try this in Finder: Click on Go -> Go to Folder then type /Users/.<user name>. You should be able to see <user name>.sparseimage.

Copy lamski, nothing there. ls -l via the terminal, doesn't reveal any sparseimage. Anyway, ok lang. I guess its really time to save for a bigger hdisk.

Btw, if I buy an hdisk from regular pc shops, would the local applecenter agree to just install/upgrade the hdisk even if i did not buy it from them? how much do they charge for that service?

cheers!

nox

[elbert]

Btw, if I buy an hdisk from regular pc shops, would the local applecenter agree to just install/upgrade the hdisk even if i did not buy it from them? how much do they charge for that service?

that topic has been discussed here and here.

[nox]

that topic has been discussed here and here.

Thanks elbertc!