This guide shares Trend Micro’s findings regarding drive types that have been tested and proven compatible using software encryption with Endpoint Encryption.
Common Drive Types
Full Disk Encryption uses software-based encryption for all standard drives (drives without self-encryption). Below is a list of all the supported drive types.
| Drive Type | Acronym | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Hard Disk Drive | HDD | Hard disk drives store data by encoding the data on magnetic spinning disks rotating between 5,400 and 10,000 RPM. HDDs currently offer the higher capacity at the lowest cost but are slowly being replaced by Solid State Drives. Endpoint Encryption supports this format of storage. |
| Solid State Drive | SSD | Solid-state drives store data by encoding the data in memory on integrated circuits, they have no moving parts and are traditionally used in mobile devices since they are both quite and are resilient to physical drops and bumps which commonly occur with mobile devices. SSDs traditionally cost more per unit of storage than traditional HDDs, although their cost continues to fall year over year as market penetration increases. Endpoint Encryption supports this format of storage. |
| Hybrid Drive | SSHD | Hybrid drives come in two configurations, but both configurations store data by encoding the data on magnetic spinning disks HDD coupled with SSD technology to cache and speed up Read / Write IOPS (see: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOPS) for the storage media. SSHDs were brought to the market to fill the gap between HDDs which offer greater storage at a lower price with SSDs which provide improved performance at a more significant cost. |
| Hybrid Drive (Multi Disk) | SSHD | The first SSHD configuration consists of multiple separate physical disks, typically an HDD and an M2 SSD controlled by the motherboard / operating system using a virtual RAID array. Trend Micro DOES NOT support RAID drives of any type, including Intel Rapid Storage Technology configurations; therefore any hybrid configuration which uses a physical or virtual RAID array is unsupported. Customers requiring a solution for this type of hardware configuration should investigate if the Endpoint Encryption Management for Microsoft BitLocker agent meets your hardware requirements. |
| Hybrid Drive (Single Disk) | SSHD | The second common configuration for SSHDs is made up of a single drive containing both an HDD and solid-state storage embedded into the same drive enclosure. The firmware on the drive handles data cashing activities in this case, and the drive would appear to the motherboard and operating system as a single logical unit. Endpoint Encryption supports this format of storage. |
| Self Encrypting Drive | SED | Self-encrypting drives can store data using traditional methods found in HDDs, SSDs, and SSHDs, however, the encryption functionality is handled by the drive hardware itself, which speeds up the encryption performance and offers additional security by isolating encryption functionality from the underlying OS. Trend Micro natively supports TCG OPAL / TCG OPAL 2 hardware encryption from Seagate, Sandisk, Intel, and Toshiba drives (see: https:// success.trendmicro.com/ solution/1113630). Additionally, Trend Micro supports managing SEDs from other vendors using software encryption (see: New KB article on forcing Software encryption on SEDs). |
Unsupported Drive Types
Full Disk Encryption does not support RAID (including multi-drive hybrid drives), SCSI drives, and eDrive drives running on Windows 8 or later environments. Customers requiring a solution for these types of hardware configurations should investigate if the Endpoint Encryption Management for Microsoft BitLocker agent meets your hardware requirements.
Drive Controllers
Full Disk Encryption currently supports ATA, AHCI, or IRRT drive controller configurations for software encryption.
