Anyone have a T400s or other with 256GB SSD with FDE?

[moore101]

Does anyone have a system with the 256GB SSD with FDE? This part is available in the TABOOK but not listed when building a system on lenovo.com
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 73173.html

I am wondering how well it works and if it would be possible to get benchmark numbers from the drive. CrystalDiskMark is a simple and good benchmark: http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html

Thanks,
Loran

[moore101]

I have received a 256GB Toshiba SSD with FDE as a loaner from Lenovo and it works great. We were seeing quite a performance drop on other stock Lenovo SSD drives (Toshiba and Samsung) after installing Utimaco SafeGuard Easy FDE. So much in fact that I have a case open with Utimaco/Sophos to try and see if there is anything that can be done.

The 256GB with hardware FDE always has 128 bit encryption enabled and drive access is restricted via the hard drive password, no additional configuration is needed. There are some remote management capabilities via Lenovo's hardware password manager utility but I have not tested it. Performance of the 256GB FDE is great, it is a faster than the Toshiba 128GB Non-FDE SSD and Intel 80GB X25-M in my benchmarking.

Too bad Lenovo only offers the SSD with FDE in the 256GB size, I am sure this drive is way to expensive for most people and companies (including mine). One interesting note is there is no apparent difference between the FDE and non-FDE Toshiba drives when comparing the PCB layout and controller chips of these drives. It is possible that the FDE functionality is dependent on the drive firmware and all the Toshiba SSD's may support FDE. I have a question into Lenovo about this, more details to come soon.

[amardeep]

How does this work ? Is there a hdd specific password that's typed in at boot time (didn't that exist already even without encrypted hdds) ? Does it protect against someone who has physical access to the machine being able to access the data (with a non-encrypted hdd I could just insert a bootable CD into the machine and mount the hdd, right ?).

[ThinkRob]

Eh.

I just use software FDE. I'm not too worried about the minor performance hit, and I certainly don't want to pay the premium for a drive with a hardware implementation.

Besides, I doubt that the drives support all the algorithm/keysize combinations that I use...

[moore101]

Well I confirmed with Lenovo, at least with the Toshiba SSD's the only difference between FDE and non-FDE drives is the firmware. Due to regional restrictions the firmware is not flashable (it was not made clear if this refers to user flashable or if the drive does not support any firmware update). So the only price premium that is being paid is for the larger 256GB drive. It is a shame that Lenovo does not offer a 128GB SSD with FDE, my company would probably pay a few bucks more for it over the 128GB non-FDE we get in our T400s models now.

[moore101]

How does this work ? Is there a hdd specific password that's typed in at boot time (didn't that exist already even without encrypted hdds) ? Does it protect against someone who has physical access to the machine being able to access the data (with a non-encrypted hdd I could just insert a bootable CD into the machine and mount the hdd, right ?).

The drive is always encrypted, to restrict access you enable the Hard Drive Password (HDP). The HDP prevents the HDD/SSD controller from initializing if it is not entered correctly. Without the HDP the HDD/SSD is not mountable and the data is 128-bit encrypted. All T42 and above systems support the HDP but it could be cracked easily until the FDE drives.

[moore101]

Eh.

I just use software FDE. I'm not too worried about the minor performance hit, and I certainly don't want to pay the premium for a drive with a hardware implementation.

Besides, I doubt that the drives support all the algorithm/keysize combinations that I use...

With SSD drives and at least Utimaco SafeGuardEasy the performance hit is very significant (50% slower or more in some cases). They have admitted to this but don't have a fix and probably wont for "existing products".

[ThinkRob]

With SSD drives and at least Utimaco SafeGuardEasy the performance hit is very significant (50% slower or more in some cases). They have admitted to this but don't have a fix and probably wont for "existing products".

I'm not one to trust closed-source crypto code, and as a result, have no interest in that particular product. Considering that LUKS is flexible, fast, and open-source, I'm set.

[rokahn]

This Toshiba page says
Toshiba's new 32nm HG3 and SG2 Series support the TRIM Command implemented in Windows 7 (their only 1.8" 256GB drive is part of their HG3 line).
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/adinfo/ssdf ... -FAQs.html