Thinkpads Forum

when I click the my computor, only the preload disk (C:) appears, but not the private disk which I made(about 2G in size) when I first powered on my computor. Anybody know how to retrieve it back? by the way, I uninstalled the client security solution software yesterday. Before that, the computor will ask me for fingerprint swipe in order for the the private disk to show up. thanks.

You need CSS to see the private disk.

If you look with Windows Explorer in the location where you created the disk you will see a file (Pdisk000 or whatever you named it) that is around 2 GB in size. That file contains the private disk. Only CSS can read it an mount it as a disk.

Ed Gibbs

There is no way (or at least no way that I am aware of) that you can use a fingerprint to mount your PrivateDisk volume. You HAVE to enter your PD password.

If you can't see your PD volume in "My Computer", it is probably because you have not configured it to "Mount automatically".

What I would try if I were you is :

1) Check in your "My Documents" directory to see if the PrivateDisk file is still here. I hope so, but can't be sure since you removed CSS
2) If it is here, save it to an an other location
3) Reinstall CSS and create a PD volume
4) Rename the old PD file (the one that you backed up in 2) to the new PD file's name
5) Replace the new PD file with the old (and renamed) one
6) Launch CSS (Start --> All Programs --> Thinkvantage --> I'm not sure of the exact path but you'll know when you see it)
7) Click on the PrivateDisk button. A new window will open. On the right part of it, you can see a box with your volume. Right click on it, and you should be able to configure it so that it mounts automatically

(Note : CSS 8 does not support PD anymore
Note 2 : I'm doing this from memory, since I have CSS8 installed, and thus no PD volume. Sorry if there are some inaccuracies)

Xavier wrote:There is no way (or at least no way that I am aware of) that you can use a fingerprint to mount your PrivateDisk volume. You HAVE to enter your PD password.

In terms of CSS6 there are two passwords, the standard paraphrase password and a Private Disk Specific Password.

From what I've seen you have to enter the paraphrase password. The Disk Specific Password only has to be entered if you've selected manual mounting of the private discs, or it has been un-mounted (either manually or due to a configured timeout).

I did all what you said, but at step 5, the system doesn't allow me to replace the new PD file with the old one since their name is the same. so what can I do next? The other question is if I want to free up the private disk, how can I do that? thanks a lot!


5) Replace the new PD file with the old (and renamed) one

If you reinstalled the original version of CSS (not version eight) you should be able to just double click on the original PD Volume file. That should open CSS, where you can mount the file as a disk assuming you know the password.

I'm not sure what you mean by "The other question is if I don't want to free up the private disk, how can I do that?" You'll need to explain what you mean by "free up the private disk."

Ed Gibbs

Sorry for the confusing, I mean I don't want to keep that private disk any longer, can I just delete that?

If there are no files in it that you want, just delete the .vol file holding the disk.

If there are files you want mount the disk, copy the files out, and then unmount it and delete the .vol file.

Ed Gibbs