Thinkpads Forum

Is this possible? The drive won't show up until a password is enters before boot...

...Also can't remember Master password so password removal isn't an option.

It's possible if the drive password is different than the BIOS password(s). The two systems are different so the master password will not help. I *always* make my hard drive password the same as my BIOS password and do *not* use master passwords. I like my life to be simple and not prone to error.
... JDH

jdhurst wrote:It's possible if the drive password is different than the BIOS password(s). The two systems are different so the master password will not help. I *always* make my hard drive password the same as my BIOS password and do *not* use master passwords. I like my life to be simple and not prone to error.
... JDH

So you're saying if the User Harddrive Password and the User BIOS password are the same I can hot plug/swap the drive? I gotta try that.

jdhurst wrote:I *always* make my hard drive password the same as my BIOS password... <snip>

And on the contrarian side... I have now decided to *always* make my BIOS (supervisor) password different than the hard drive password. If my system is ever stolen, I'd like to make it as hard as possible for somebody to get at my data. I could really care less about them being able to use/resell a semi-functional laptop (easy to say when you have as many Thinkpads as I do ). I don't think like that about the files on my hard drive. This comes from being a victim several years ago of a stolen laptop which was NOT protected with any passwords.

To the original poster's question - I don't think hot swapping will help. It isn't the TP that is asking for the password, it is the drive electronics.

If what is on there is really important there are services that will get it off for you for a considerable fee. Otherwise it's a cool paperweight.

Ed Gibbs

egibbs wrote:To the original poster's question - I don't think hot swapping will help. It isn't the TP that is asking for the password, it is the drive electronics.

If what is on there is really important there are services that will get it off for you for a considerable fee. Otherwise it's a cool paperweight.

Ed Gibbs

I can access everything on it. On the Drive there is a Master Password, and a User Password. I remember the User password, thus I can still use the drive. I just can't remove the password so I can swap it in and out.

Setting the Power-On password and the Hard Drive's User Password doesn't allow me to swap the disks while in the OS

Do I need any Thinkvantage utilities for this function?

Guess this isn't possible with drives with passwords on it or XP and my z61m don't like me.

Even if I could remove the password don't know if I would want to.