MacOS – Accessing the old FileVault2 encrypted drive from the new SSD

filevaultmacosssd

I'm almost ready to mount my new Crucial M4 SSD into my MBP Unibody13" and move my old HDD into an Optibay caddy. (Finally, thanks to an Amazon's discount..)

I would like to install a fresh Mountain Lion distro on the SSD and keep all my data (and my Lion OS) on the old HDD. The thing is my old drive is encrypted using FileVault2, and I wonder if I will still be able to access my "old" content from my fresh install, i.e to copy some files before formatting it…

Will my FileVault's Recovery Key do the job?

Any advice will be appreciated…

Thanks

Best Answer

In short, yes. I've just done a similar install, with the old, FileVault 2-encrypted volume on an external drive. When your new OS attempts to mount the encrypted partition, it will request a password. Entering the FV key will allow it to decrypt and mount the drive - I believe you can elect to save the key to your Keychain to avoid having to re-enter the password the next time it mounts.

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