Using SafeBoot encryption with Parallels Desktop

C

chanson

Bit poster
Does anyone know if SafeBoot Device Encryption (www.safeboot.com) for PC is compatible with Parallels Desktop for Mac, i.e. can Safeboot protect a Parallels virtual machine running Windows XP on an iMac running MacOS X Leopard? I'm thinking it might talk to the hardware too directly for it to work.

Anyone have any experience of this? It may be the only way I can use a MacBook Pro at work...

Many thanks in advance for any information.
 
Pre-boot authentication and Parallels probably do not play well.

Have you considered using FireVault and storing the windows virtual .hdd file in that? It will keep the virtual disk encrypted.

Also, have you looked at using SafeBoot in BootCamp? It may or may not work due to the fact that Apple uses EFI and not the age-old BIOS.
 
I have considered FileVault, but read on the forums that this make Parallels very slow because FileVault will have to encypt/decrypt the whole hard disk file all the time. Is this not the case, i.e. does anyone use Parallels with its hard disk file in a FileVault-protected Home folder on a regular basis and find that it works well?

Also, I also considered using FileVault overkill because it would also be encrypting the rest of my Home folder, including over 100 GB of media files which I don't need encrypted and which I don't want to lose if FileVault messes up. Of course, I could create a new user with just Parallels and run FileVault for that user, but that's making things too complicated.
 
It's not that bad performance. I would check it out and see if it works. Just move the media files outside of your user directory and stick symbolic links to them in your user directory and chown the directories you placed those files in to whatever settings you want.
 
very long slow startup delay with SafeBoot (McAfee PC Endpoint Encryption)

I have McAfee PC Endpoint Encryption (previously called SafeBoot) installed on Vista 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit guests, and it takes an HOUR for these systems to launch the Windows boot sequence after entering my authentication key. Both systems booted normally before EE was installed. Once they're fully booted, they run normally. This is on Parallels 5 on a MacBook Pro. And by exporting the running systems back to physical disks (e.g., BootCamp) to "remove" encryption, both start normally with it gone.

I've experimented with the same Windows configurations on VMware guests (on both my MacBook with Fusion 2.x as well as on PCs running VMware ESXi and Ubuntu Linux with VMware Player and Server), and they all boot normally. And of course, both boot fine with encryption installed when running on PC hardware.

For a variety of reasons, I'm reluctant to go (back) to VMware Fusion on my mac, so I have a couple of questions:

1. Does anyone have any suggestions how to troubleshoot this problem? What could be causing an hour-long pause?
2. Is it possible that Parallels 6 might have somehow eliminated the problem (unlikely, I think, but possible)?

I'm at wit's end on this, having scoured the web, done extensive tests, etc. Thanks in advance for any ideas!

x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top