Using PresSTORE with FileVault on Mac - Powered By Kayako eSupport

03 Sep 2010

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	Using PresSTORE with FileVault on Mac

Solution

FileVault is a system that protects files in the users home directories on a Macintosh computer by encryption.
Since OS X 10.5 (Leopard), FileVault stores the encrypted file system as a new image called sparse bundle, that is a directory holding chunks of 8 MB of the encripted files.

In order to save these protected home directories with Synchronize, Backup or Backup2Go in PresSTORE, just save the /Users folder and define a filter to include all folders with a name ending in .sparsebundle for that backup.

PresSTORE will then save the encrypted contents.

The sparse bundles allow further to create incremental backups, as only those 8 MB chunks with changes must be saved.

Notes:

Using PresSTORE with FileFault on OS X versions prior to 10.5 is not recommended.
It is possible to restore the complete FileVault Home directory, but it is not possible to perform partial restore operations.

Example filter definition: