New Sophos SafeGuard installation

Question

Hi All, 
 
 I am just doing a new installation in a new environment and have noticed a paragraph in the installation document where it states that the endpoints must be completely formatted. 
 
 I have done the software configuration package from the SafeGuard Management console however this seems a bit much. 
 Can anyone confirm that this can only be deployed to new machines and not existing machines?

FormerMember · Answer

Hi Anand, 
 Yeah I think this is just the way the guide is written, but I can confirm you definitely don't need to do this. 
 I'm guessing you're referring to section 9.3 Preparing endpoints for encryption in the install guide? It contradicts itself because it also says a user account must be setup and active... which you can't do if the drive has been formatted :) I think the intention when the guide was written was that the machine had been "formatted recently" before Windows was installed and configured. It's definitely a good practice but it's not an essential requirement that would hold up an install. 
 For existing machines we recommend doing the following to ensure the machines are in a good state ready to be encrypted: 
 Run a full defrag Run a check of the drive by running chkdsk C: /F /V /X 
 Hope that helps Anand, but let me know if you have any queries.