Intel 320-series SSD and FDE (Full Disk Encryption) questions...

[idata]

I am considering to buy a couple of new solid state drives for my company. A requirement is FDE and according to some info I found the new 320 series should support this. I have a few questions:

1. As far as I know none of our computers have any support in BIOS for disk password. Is this required for FDE to work with the 320 series or how exactly does the encyption / password entry work?

2. If we would like to use a RAID configuration (RAID 0 striping) is it still possible to use FDE and if so do one have to enter a password for each disk?

3. What about using two disks in the samer computer (non-raid) that is used to dual boot two different operating systems (say Linux and Windows 7) installed one OS on each drive - does FDE work in this case and would one have to enter a password twice?

4. Is the FDE solution dependent on some support in the OS (in that case what OS does it work with) or is it independent?

5. Do you have some white paper about the FDE with for instance information about how much slower it is compared to a non FDE drive?

6. I have read that TRIM does not work with SSDs in RAID configuration. Is this still the case and how dependent is the 320-series of TRIM?

/Trist

CORRECTION : I just found that our Dell Precision M6500 computers do have a field in the BIOS for disk password so I am interested in the questions above (two disks in the machine with or without RAID) also for this configuration. How do I know if the 320-serias FDE is compatible with the disk password setting in the dell M6500 machines? Is there a standard for this that all BIOS manufacturers follows or??

[idata]

Hi SSDelightful . We are still waiting for the answers you promised two days ago. Please respond. Thx

[idata]

Requires BIOS level password setup to enable user-unique encryption.

According to

http://download.intel.com/design/flash/nand/325212.pdf http://download.intel.com/design/flash/nand/325212.pdf

[idata]

I would like to know the answer as well. Is the ATA password set in the BIOS directly linked to the key stored in the Intel 320 drive? If not, the encryption feature in the drive wouldn't really be accessable to the user.

[idata]

I'm also interested in this, any word from Intel yet?

[idata]

Another interesting question:

What about Intel's FDE and hot-swapping ATA password secured SSD Drive? Is it hot plug/hot swap possible with such security system enabled?