Mar 25 2012

BitLocker and iPods – Will They Blend?

Leading on from yesterday’s article about BitLocker and the unfortunate situation that Mac OS X users find themselves in when BitLocker to Go is enforced at work when using USB devices we should also consider one popular USB device, the iPod.

It may be a lesser known fact that iPods will use either HFS+ or FAT32 for its file system (depending on if you use it with a Mac or Windows computer) but these days the default is set to FAT32 given that Windows PCs far outnumber Macs and Windows PCs can’t usually read HFS+ volumes.

So what does this mean for “BitLocker to Go” enforced policies at work?

Well, for starters BitLocker can’t be enforced on iPods as BitLocker relies on NTFS to work. However, let’s just suppose you could encrypt an iPod’s internal drive the iPod itself wouldn’t be able to decrypt it which would render it completely useless (as it’d never be able to boot up). The same would also go for Android smartphones that tend to use Ext4 – a file system that is popular amongst the various Linux flavours out there.

Anyway, your mileage may vary when trying to use iPods and smartphones with your Windows computer that is attempting to force BitLocker to Go on USB devices so be prepared for them to not work at all to avoid disappointment.

Boydo

My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting.

In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).

I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets.

I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics.

I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

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