Hard Disk Encryption: How to?

[fefrie]

I need to make a couple t42 secure so that if the laptops go missing, the hard drive data will be encrypted and unable to access.

How would I go about doing so?

I know that there can be a power on password protection, but I also need the hard drive encrypted so that if it is removed, the data can't be accessed.

For the hard drive to be encrypted, I'm assuming the ACCESS IBM button will provide me with all the info I need to encrypt the data properly. However how would I go about doing the same on a hard drive that doesn't have the recovery partition?

Will I have to reformat the drive using the restore cd method to gain the features as part of the the IBM hidden partition?

[ajkula66]

T4x generation doesn't support FDE in the way modern laptops do.

Your best bet is a hard drive password which is supported on these machines.

[lukee]

Possible solutions:

1. HDD password in BIOS (as ajkula66 suggested)
2. Open source, on-the-fly encryption TrueCrypt

As the T4x series have TPM V1.1 security chip implemented, it should support transparent HDD encryption with encryption keys saved in the chip. I think the Client Security Solution software should support this feature, however I have not figured out yet how to use it.

[fefrie]

I've put a password onto the BIOS, the hard drive, and power on password.

Seems to work well enough, however on testing, it seems like I can't 'undo' one or all of the passwords. On the tester laptop, it's not a big deal. I'll just have to make a point on not forgetting the passwords.

I may try the security embedded chip, however on this tester laptop, there is no recovery partition with access ibm software, so i'm a little loathe to try it. Not sure if it will work without the software. Will have to figure it out.

I'm hoping that with the passwords, the average thief will not bother with the work to get a $120 laptop working again, or hack a 'worthless' 40gb pata hard drive.