Hi Aldo,

I think my response may take the discussion in a different route (I think you 
are looking for specific stats). However, it does address some of the questions 
you bring up.

The only difference between an FDE drive and a regular drive is the ASIC on FDE 
drive that process the encryption. The platter, the servo, the slider, the 
head, the control board are all the same as in that of a regular drive. So, as 
long as you have the encryption key backed up someplace outside the FDE drive, 
the reliability of the FDE drive and the recovery from failure are similar to a 
regular drive:
a) When image/re-imaging a computer, one has the choice of deactivating the 
encryption prior to this process (or authenticate to the pre-boot and do a soft 
reboot right after). So, no major difference here.
b), c) Given the hardware itself is the same, the electrical failure stat will 
be the same. If it is a complete hardware failure, the strategy is not to bring 
the drive to its original state, but to recover the data. This will require 
forensic access to the drive, which will recover the raw data, but for the FDE 
drive, the encryption key would be required to make sense of it all.

Scott


On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, Aldo Solari [APS] wrote:

> I  would  need a data integrity imlementation (research work) based on
> (rather  symmetric)  AES 128 (or 256) with key tokens for SATA drives.
>
> There  are  several issues on which I would like to request assistance
> if I may:
>
> (i)  I  do  not find any such products in Spain. Is there any European
> producer of cryptographic cards/devices ?
>
> (ii)  The  info I find in the "web" (American products) never refer to
> the  risks  associated  to  the  use  of  their  products (which I may
> understand).  However, aspects related to (a) restoring of disk images
> from  (hardawre)  encrypted hard disks, (b) problems due to electrical
> failures  during  disk  reads/writes,  (c)  corruption  of  MBR,  (d)
> cryptographic  card  failures, etc. are not transparently addressed. I
> have  not  found  any  in-depth  studies/comparatives  addressing such
> matters.
>
> I would thank any incoming recommendations/advice.
>
> Thank you all
>
> W/ best wishes,
>
>
>  Aldo.Solari [at] gmail [dot] com
>  fisheries biologist
>
> ----
> Las Palmas (Canary Islands) - 29/07/2007
> ----
>
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>


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