Encrypting / Converting Existing HFS+ Volume - Converting Volumes

RE: Encrypting / Converting Existing HFS+ Volume

m1macmini — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 20:38:10 +0000

Thanks!

RE: Encrypting / Converting Existing HFS+ Volume

SoftRAID Support — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 19:07:14 +0000

@m1macmini

diskutil does not understand SoftRAID volumes, so no.

You can use SoftRAID to create a APFS volume, then use Disk Utility to erase it as encrypted if you want to test it out.

RE: Encrypting / Converting Existing HFS+ Volume

m1macmini — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 16:44:47 +0000

Is it possible to use diskutil to convert an HFS+ volume to APFS? Will data be preserved during the conversion?

RE: Encrypting / Converting Existing HFS+ Volume

SoftRAID Support — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 16:35:26 +0000

That won't work. We can only "shrink" or expand the last volume on the disk, we do not move partition start points.

Note: We do not support encryption on APFS volumes as there is still a kernel panic bug in macOS. You are welcome to encrypt using Disk Utility, it can erase a SoftRAID volume as encrypted, but you are likely to get occasional kernel panics.

Encrypting / Converting Existing HFS+ Volume

m1macmini — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 03:05:30 +0000

I do have a current HFS+ volume that is not encrypted, and I would like to encrypt it (which is the main goal). As part of this, I figured I may want to (or need to) convert this volume to an APFS volume.

First of all: is that possible at all (the volume is RAID5)?

Next: Is this path doable:

- shrink the HFS+ volume (less then half of the volume is used)

- create a new (encrypted) APFS volume on the open space

- copy data from HFS+ volume to the APFS volume

- erase HFS+ volume to allow for more space for the APFS to grow.

(sorry. I am no file system expert)