Mac OS and Windows sharing BitLocker Protected Drive(s)

[Dougcjohn]

For the Mac OS Users that also use Windows, and wanting a clean stable way to protect a common Drive (External or Internal).
I've tried multiple cross platform tools... VeraCrypt (New TrueCrypt) was close in needs but not very stable moving back & forth between OS... during testing, it eventually failed to re-mount on Mac OS side.

Using a NTFS External Drive is no challenge... Paragon offers a great purchase tool, and several freebies.
To protect the drive, the BitLocker encryption is nice but Mac OS won't recognize it by default.
The TrueCrypt - VeraCrypt offers great encryption offering, but my needs are simply to prevent unwanted access and BitLocker meets that need.

The 2 primary BitLocker for MacOS tools are: M3 and Hasleo.

M3 BitLocker for Mac: Read/Write BitLocker drive on Mac

BitLocker for Mac tool: M3 BitLocker Loader for Mac can easily open, read, write BitLocker encrypted drive on Mac (M1, M2, M3). Free download and try it for free.

www.m3datarecovery.com

bitlocker-for-mac.html

I've experimented with both, the M3 is a cleaner professional app but the Hasleo is much lower in cost and benchmarks read/write show them about equal in performance.
Each MacOS requires a purchased License Key, it's not sharable like many applications.
The interface isn't that important to me, once it's unlocked & mounted the Hasleo App can even be closed.

I personally use 3 Mac Catalina and a Bootcamp Windows 10 1909 with 1 20TB Thunderbolt 3 Drive and a Drobo 5D3. Both Externals formatted in NTFS & Bitlocker.
The Thunderbolt provides excellent throughput to store images, photogrammetry and 3D projects.

 

[Vakuya]

I know this is quite an old topic but I recently switched over to macOS and was searching for a solution to access my BitLocker encrypted NTFS drives and stumbled upon this.

I have tried the Hasleo software on macOS Ventura on my M1 Max Macbook Pro and read/write speeds are sitting at around 5-6 MB/s, which is way too slow compared to the unencrypted state.

I'd love to try the M3 software as well, but I'm not sure whether it will have better performance. And like you said, the price is a lot higher, so I'm not sure whether it will be worth it at all.

Would love to hear back from you on that topic as I'm desperately searching for a viable way to access all my drives across macOS and Windows. My current drives are 14TB large (almost full) and with transfer speeds of just 6 MB/s this would be a nightmare to deal with.

Hopefully there is a solution for this. Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[Dougcjohn]

I know this is quite an old topic but I recently switched over to macOS and was searching for a solution to access my BitLocker encrypted NTFS drives and stumbled upon this.

I have tried the Hasleo software on macOS Ventura on my M1 Max Macbook Pro and read/write speeds are sitting at around 5-6 MB/s, which is way too slow compared to the unencrypted state.

I'd love to try the M3 software as well, but I'm not sure whether it will have better performance. And like you said, the price is a lot higher, so I'm not sure whether it will be worth it at all.

Would love to hear back from you on that topic as I'm desperately searching for a viable way to access all my drives across macOS and Windows. My current drives are 14TB large (almost full) and with transfer speeds of just 6 MB/s this would be a nightmare to deal with.

Hopefully there is a solution for this. Thanks a lot in advance!

You're correct, this is an older thread... my personal usage has changed a bit over the 2 years.
Speed of transfer... using drive as workflow drive for photos & video became more priority.
Encryption was moved to main storage, and not as focused for smaller portable drives that are now more used as temporary / travel storage & workflow; Still able to encrypt a set of folders as needed but not for folders used in workflow.

As you've pointed out... the speed of the encrypted drives/volumes degrades the drives hi-speed technology.
The speed of even a Samsung T7 (native) with USB3.1 (1000-800) became slow using new 2021 M1 Max Macbook, moving to Thunderbolt 3/4 External housings (2200-2800) that hold NVMe SSD provided a method to store externally with near Internal Transfer speeds allow editing photos & video on the external drive... actually works great for both MacBook Pro and the new iPad Pro M1 w Thunderbolt USB port.

The Samsung T7 or newer NVMe series of their drives offers their Encrypted Finger print version drive up to 4TB last time I checked. That's 1 option for external plug-in Drives. I've personally had great use with them, although no longer carry them as portables.

The iBoysoft Bitlocker has been about the most adaptive & stable product for Mac & Windows OS.
Although transfer speed is impacted too.

I moved to a Synology NAS, model 1821+ 8Bay (8x 10TB NAS Drv), added 2x 1TB NVMe as Cache Pool & 2X DIMMs for 32GB RAM, and 10GB Dual NIC PCI card for a local 10GB subnet between desired devices and separate from Hm LAN. The NAS abilities to protect and encrypt are wide... multiple degrees of options; Nice access and remote usage too.

Externally I've moved to Sabrent 4TB Thunderbolt/USB3.2 drive or ACASIS TB4/USB4 Enclosure with 4TB NVMe.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BB74BQVN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Drive Encryption Mac & Windows:

How to encrypt, password protect USB drive for Mac & Windows PC usage?

How to encrypt, password protect USB flash drive for Mac and Windows PC usage? With help of M3 Mac BitLocker Loader, BitLocker encrypted USB flash drive can be used for Mac and Windows PC.

iboysoft.com

Long story short... I'd take a strong look at iBoysoft. They're updates are prompt with MacOS versions & security patches.

 

[Vakuya]

Can you tell how much transfer speed is impacted on that Thunderbolt 3/4 external drive for example? If it's a couple hundred MB/s from 2800 to let's say even 2000 that'd still be absolutely great for my use. I am getting just 6 MB/s on the Hasleo software and would like to hear your opinion before buying the iBoySoft BitLocker solution as I am afraid transfer speeds might be a lot slower than that. Can you share some real world figures? Would highly appreciate it! Thanks for all the other information. Always thankful when I can learn something new. Cheers!

 

[Dougcjohn]

Can you tell how much transfer speed is impacted on that Thunderbolt 3/4 external drive for example? If it's a couple hundred MB/s from 2800 to let's say even 2000 that'd still be absolutely great for my use. I am getting just 6 MB/s on the Hasleo software and would like to hear your opinion before buying the iBoySoft BitLocker solution as I am afraid transfer speeds might be a lot slower than that. Can you share some real world figures? Would highly appreciate it! Thanks for all the other information. Always thankful when I can learn something new. Cheers!

If you're looking for an full volume encryption tool... iBoysoft is a possible... as well as M3 and Gilisoft products. Gilisoft offer a Folder level encryption, vs whole volume.

The direction I took was away from whole drive encryption. I don't see benefit to full drive encryption for cross compatible drives for stability and performance; a compressed folder uncompressed & used at normal transfer speed without encryption algorithms slowing the process works better for my needs. Another route is folder level encryption with TrueCrypt forks.

I don't have any recent performance evaluations using MacOS12 or 13.x using newer versions of the above 3 products. I currently use Paragon NTFS for Windows volumes, it does not support BitLocker but does work with TrueCrypt forks... such as VeraCrypt or AxCrypt. Performance on NTFS volumes is fast, about the same as FAT volumes natively supported on MacOS.... both slightly slower than MacOS volumes.

[Windows 11] Gilisoft File Lock Pro – Password Protect Files, Folders on Local Drive , USB drive or LAN Network.

Gilisoft File Lock Pro Lock folders on internal hard drive, flash drive, external USB drive, thumb drive, memory card, pen drive, and network drive. Encrypt files, folders; Hide files folders and drives; Make files folders and drives read only; Password protect files folders and drives.

www.gilisoft.com

veracrypt

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Microsoft NTFS for Mac | Paragon Software

Boost Your Mac with Paragon File System Link. Read/write Microsoft NTFS files on your Mac for free.

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