Test Machine Description (some sort of name like "Bob's G5"): Jon's MBP
Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Disk Size: 96 with 37 GB available
Encryption Technique: FileVault
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How long did it take to configure initially? 5 in minutes
How long did the actual encryption take? 120 in minutes
How large is your Home Dir (FileVault) or Folder (EFS)? 26 in GB
How easy was the initial setup? (1 being trivial, 5 being very hard) 2
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During the encryption, the system was entirely unusable. During the deletion of the old home dir, there was at least an using the option to cancel , but I waited impatiently for it to finishafter an hour resulted in a long delay. All in all the process took me 4.5 hours. I think we should recommend people move large non-sensitive files out of the home directory (like movies or virtual machine images) before enabling FileVault. They can then be moved back in afterwards with more incremental delay.