Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

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garnet
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Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

#1 Post by garnet » Tue Apr 05, 2011 4:59 am

Hi
Does anyone know how is the HDP implemented if you have 2 HDDs? Is it only on the main HDD, or you can set it up for both main and UltraBay HDD?
Since it is the UBay HDD which holds the actual information (main one being OS SSD) it would be nice it to be protected also.
T60 8743-cto, 64 GB C300 SSD, UB HDD - 200GB 7200, ATI MR X1400 @ 1680x1050, 3 GB RAM, Core 2 Duo T7200 2 GHz, Atheros WIFI N, IntelPRO/1000 PL, DVDRW, Win XP pro/Ubuntu 10.10

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Re: Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

#2 Post by AMATX » Tue Apr 05, 2011 9:15 am

Well, if you set a password for the drive that will be in the ultrabay slot, the Tpad will check for it upon boot. So, you'd be covered from a security angle.

I usually set my HD passwords to be the same for all drives and laptops, so that I can swap 'em in/out of various Tpads. However, if I remember correctly, a drive with a different pw from your boot pw will/may not work if you slide it into the ultrabay after you've booted up. Reason is the Tpad needs to check pw's at boot time, so a drive with a diff pw won't have been checked. Not 100% sure about this, as it's been a long time since I did this, but if you run into problems, this may be it.

Others may chime in here on this, as there's different ways to set up the password manager in the bios. I keep mine simple/easy to use and don't remember all of the many angles to this.

That all said, if you boot with two HD, each with different pw's, the Tpad will require you to enter each pw(separately).

garnet
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Re: Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

#3 Post by garnet » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:30 am

AMATX wrote:Well, if you set a password for the drive that will be in the ultrabay slot, the Tpad will check for it upon boot. So, you'd be covered from a security angle.

I usually set my HD passwords to be the same for all drives and laptops, so that I can swap 'em in/out of various Tpads. However, if I remember correctly, a drive with a different pw from your boot pw will/may not work if you slide it into the ultrabay after you've booted up. Reason is the Tpad needs to check pw's at boot time, so a drive with a diff pw won't have been checked. Not 100% sure about this, as it's been a long time since I did this, but if you run into problems, this may be it.

Others may chime in here on this, as there's different ways to set up the password manager in the bios. I keep mine simple/easy to use and don't remember all of the many angles to this.

That all said, if you boot with two HD, each with different pw's, the Tpad will require you to enter each pw(separately).
Thanks,
with my setup do I need to put the current UB HDD in the main bay to set a PW for it and then move it back to UB?
And then (or before that) to set up the PW for the OS SSD in the main bay?
T60 8743-cto, 64 GB C300 SSD, UB HDD - 200GB 7200, ATI MR X1400 @ 1680x1050, 3 GB RAM, Core 2 Duo T7200 2 GHz, Atheros WIFI N, IntelPRO/1000 PL, DVDRW, Win XP pro/Ubuntu 10.10

richk
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Re: Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

#4 Post by richk » Tue Apr 05, 2011 10:31 am

The only complication is that if you try to insert the ultrabay drive after the system is running (hot swap), it will not prompt for the ultrabay's drive's password and it will remain locked. You would need something (software) to send the ATA commands to the drive along with your password. You can set the password in the ultrabay. It will be an option in the bios if you boot with the drive there

garnet
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Re: Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

#5 Post by garnet » Tue Apr 05, 2011 12:28 pm

it is exactly as you said. now i think i wont hotswap the drive too often, but just out of curiousity is there a way for it to ask for UB HDD password? Which program?
T60 8743-cto, 64 GB C300 SSD, UB HDD - 200GB 7200, ATI MR X1400 @ 1680x1050, 3 GB RAM, Core 2 Duo T7200 2 GHz, Atheros WIFI N, IntelPRO/1000 PL, DVDRW, Win XP pro/Ubuntu 10.10

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Re: Hard drive password and 2nd hard drive in ubay

#6 Post by AMATX » Tue Apr 05, 2011 5:52 pm

I can't add much to the above post of mine, as I have just one procedure. I did learn, however, that if you stick a HD in the ultrabay and it's not fully recognized by Windows, it could well have a pw that's different. In this case, you can try rebooting with the drive in place and wait to be prompted to enter the pw. Guessing games ensue until you get it right or give up :D

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