Endpoint Encryption

I have been testing SEE 8.2.0 with Seagate Momentus Thin Opal SEDs (model# ST320LT009) and have seen some strange, unexceptable behavior.  As soon as the framework and full disk clients are installed and the system reboots, Windows 7 x64 OS starts up, and takes a long time (about 5 mins) before I can authenticate at the Windows login.  The hard drive light on the laptop is completeley pegged during this time.  After delay, I can eventually login and I am presented with the user registration process.  After every subsequent login to the Windows OS, there is a long delay (100% drive activity) of about 2-3 mins.  Without the SEE clients installed, the system does not exhibit any of this behavior.

I am glad to see SEE support self-encrypting drives, but not with this poor performance.  It is unusable.

I have installed SEE 8.2.0, 8.2.0 HF1, and 8.2.0 MP1...all version exhibit the same behavior.  The laptops tested are all Dell E6x20 series.

Does anyone have a fix or at least an explanation?

Thanks,

APB

Hi apbrown,

The only officially tested/certified Opal drives with 8.x are Hitachi, at this time.  See Release Notes at the below link.  We did test with Seagate and other brands of Opal "compliant" drives but due to some HW manufacturer differences, we were not able to certify them with the present releases of SEE.  Our current plans are to add Seagate and others in the Q1/2012 time frame.

Just as a side note:  just because there is a "Opal compliant" stamp, that does not mean there aren't differences between Opal Drives of different manufacturers.  The drives may still work but oddities/issues can arise...as it appears you may be seeing some of that.

http://www.symantec.com/docs/S:TECH165854