Is disk image encryption slower than partition encryption? I am considering two options to encrypt some data:


add a new encrypted partition
add an encrypted disk image


Which option is faster in terms of disk read/write speed? I suspect that an encrypted disk image would have a worse performance than using an encrypted partition, but I am not sure.
An encrypted partition would likely be faster. With a disk image, you're actually accessing two filesystems, one within the disk image, and the one on which the disk image is stored, as well as the technologies needed to read the disk image itself. It seem unlikely that a disk image could ever be faster than full-disk encryption, but you would have to run benchmarks to be certain.