Seagate's Momentus FDE.2 full-disk encrypted hard drives put the reviewer in a quandary. If a product's intent is to be invisible, a behind-the-scenes tech that handles its job without getting in the user's way, what does one talk about when it functions as advertised? It's like reviewing a light bulb or a brick: all you need to know is that it works.
So, I have before me a laptop, the ASI C8015 (More info here). It's a meat 'n' two veg, workaday laptop, the sort that businesses buy by the truckload. The magic is that the hard drive inside it is completely encrypted: a BIOS password keeps the bad guys out, but there's no further impact on the user experience. The laptop comes with an exciting configuration application you can play around with (pictured above), but there's not a lot to it.
Here's what it it all comes down to: assuming the underlying encryption is worth its salt, Momentus works. This technology renders software encryption quaint, like flock wallpaper or walnut burl—naturally, I'm assuming it becomes available as a generic system-building option, rather than as a specialist component of biz channel notebooks.
So, what's the point of it all? Privacy. You can sell an old laptop without having to worry about your art collection being recovered; everything, including fussy system cache and .DAT files, are encrypted; a boot-up password that can't be defeated by resetting the CMOS jumper on the motherboard; single-click "self destruct" of all data; and all of it totally zero-maintenance after the initial setup.
And that setup is a snap: fire up the admin app and pick a boot password, and you're done. Future updates will let one use the ASI's integrated fingerprint reader instead of an alphanumeric.
That's all, folks. The drive's hardware now decrypts data on the fly as it flows back and forth from platter to processor; there's no performance hit, no possibility of software failure, no hassle at all. Benchmarks follow below.
According to the manual, should one concoct a boot disk to bypass the boot authentication, all it will see is a few meager megabytes of unencrypted, unpartitioned space. Recovery software or hardware will just see a fat load of AES gibberish across the rest.
Advanced features? Well, what else do you want? When you're done, hit "Cryptographic Drive Erase." Finito.
Watch for a review soon at Gadget Lab.
