Can I boot from an external drive with hardware encryption?
Solution 1:
I don't think so, because the drive can't be unencrypted by the Mac before an OS is loaded.
If you want to encrypt your data, then using FileVault is the best way, and your Mac knows how to boot from a FileVault drive.
However, it will boot to Recovery first, then ask you for the drive's password, then let you boot up.