Thinkpads Forum

First, some background. I have a t60p that runs happily with some hdd. I get my hands on an Intel 80gb SATA, make a win7 usb stick, pop the old out, the new SSD in. Then, it appears that the t61 helpfully set a random password to the drive. If I pop the old drive back in the box, it boots juuuuuust fine. Pop the SSD in, and it prompts for the password before I can even get into the BIOS.

Nowhere in the BIOS does it so much as mention a HDD password.

I've read several threads that say that HDD passwords are permanent.

Can anyone help me here?

A billion thanks to anyone that can help.

- Eric

Welcome to the forum!

ThinkPads do not set passwords by themselves. Your "new" SSD was likely password-protected to begin with.

You may want to take up that issue with the previous owner of the drive, which is now a very light doorstopper.

Good luck.

I'm the original owner, and I assure you no password was set by me.

I just popped the SSD in the toaster, disk mgmt shows it as 74.53GB unallocated. I right click it, and "New Simple Volume" is greyed out.

I'm not quite sure that I understand what the "toaster" is, but if the machine is asking for a HDD password on that drive only then the password was set at some point in the game on the aforementioned SSD, and not by your ThinkPad.

The toaster is my USB HDD adaptor.

God as my witness, I never set a password on the thing.

ericcire wrote:The toaster is my USB HDD adaptor.

OK, I just learned something new.

God as my witness, I never set a password on the thing.

I'm not saying you did.

What I am saying is that your ThinkPad most certainly did not.

Do you have another laptop you could pop this SSD in and report back what happens?

I'm searching frantically for that post from lenovo's site that explained the random password setting thing.

ericcire wrote:I'm searching frantically for that post from lenovo's site that explained the random password setting thing.

Good luck with that one.

I've been on LF since before it was open to the general public and don't recall that anyone ever actually explained something like that, although I've read a few complaints that resemble yours.

You'd think that a HDD password could be removed, obviously at the cost of the data. But apparently not so.

Bout to try this: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloa ... D=DS003053

Well, I can't find it (naturally). However, I can say that I've never once set any password in any BIOS, and didn't last night either.

I can also say that the SSD worked just fine in the USB>SATA adapter, but no more.

I guess if you gotta brick something, brick something you got for free.

Lest I forget, thanks for the help earlier.

Let's try this again right from the beginning.
Your statements:
- I have a t60p
- I get my hands on an Intel 80gb SATA, make a win7 usb stick
- it appears that the t61 helpfully set a random password to the drive
are contradictory and seem incomplete!
Do you have a T60p, or a T61, or both? (this makes no difference as to password setting or not)
Are you swapping the drive between laptops?
Was that a new or used or refurbished Intel SSD? (I suspect previously owned)
Did you make that USB stick from a legal copy of Win7? (and not one downloaded from the "dark side")

And as mentioned before: no IBM/Lenovo laptop ever sets a password by itself.

Pardon, it's a t61p. I don't have a t60p, slip of the finger there.

Have had the Intel 80GB SATA since bought new from god knows where.

The install stick was forged from an MSDN ISO.

Not swapping the SSD between laptops, it's been either unused or working just dandy in my USB/SATA adapter.

I swear to Xenu that I saw somewhere on the lenovo site about the BIOS setting a HDD password. However, I was unable to find it after no less than an hour of searching.

And as far as BIOS passwords of any kind go, I just don't bother, by policy.I [censored] WELL DID NOT DO IT JUST THE OTHER DAY.

I hope this clears up those (very valid) points raised. I also would like to point out that my caps are intended to convey seriousness, not yelling.