Size of the Unprotected area of the Files and Removable Media protected device seems incorrect

Technical Articles ID: KB70376
Last Modified: 12/23/2021

Environment

McAfee Files and Removable Media Protection (FRP) 5.x
McAfee Removable Media Protection (offsite access options) 5.x

For details of FRP supported environments, see KB81149.

Summary

Background information about Unprotected Files
With FRP you can place data in either of the following:

Encrypted container only
Encrypted container or in the plaintext area of the device

NOTE: The plain text area is denoted as a folder called Unprotected Files. If your administrator has decided that the entire device must be encrypted, you do not see the folder.

Problem

When you use FRP, the size of the folder Unprotected files is incorrectly reported.

Example
When testing on a 4-GB USB device, and the entire device is encrypted, the Unprotected part is incorrectly reported as being 3.82 GB. But, in actuality, the entire drive is encrypted and no files can be saved to the unprotected folder.

Cause

The reason for this is that many storage, hard-disk, and USB vendors calculate with 1 GB as 1,000,000,000 Bytes. But, 1 GB is 1024x1024x1024 = 1,073,741,824 Bytes

For a 4-GB device, it is officially (4 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024), which in total = 4,294,967,296 Bytes.

A manufacturer calculates 4 GB (4,000,000,000) as ((4,000,000,000 / 1024) /1024) / 1024, which in total = 3.72 GB. It is only an estimation which can lead to differences in the calculation.

Solution

Investigations have shown that this issue is not possible to resolve. The size of the Unprotected files folder is calculated using the Property window by iterating through all files and summarizing their sizes. The Unprotected files folder contains both the MfeEERM.exe and the volume files of the encrypted container. So, the size shown is correct.

Affected Products

File and Removable Media Protection 5.4.x
File and Removable Media Protection 5.3.x
File and Removable Media Protection 5.2.x
File and Removable Media Protection 5.1.x
File and Removable Media Protection 5.0.x (EOL)

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Knowledge Center

Size of the Unprotected area of the Files and Removable Media protected device seems incorrect

Environment

Summary

Problem

Cause

Solution

Affected Products

Languages:

Title

Title

Knowledge Center

Size of the Unprotected area of the Files and Removable Media protected device seems incorrect

Environment

Summary

Problem

Cause

Solution

Affected Products

Languages:

Choose your region

Title

Title