Thinkpads Forum

For some reason I can't figure out, all of a sudden my tablet won't let me access my Secure Drive. I set the secure drive up two months ago to automatically mount when I login - it has worked wonderfully with no problems.

Then this week, I boot up my tablet and my Secure Drive won't mount - instead, it asks for the "administrator password". The rest of the computer works just fine. From reading on the internet I gather the Client Security Software occasionally will auto-generate an internal password (that the administrator is not aware of) if some system changes are implemented. I didn't change any settings, but I'm wondering if my automatic microsoft updates did something...

I've tried everything to access my Secure Drive since then, including:
-system restore
-virus/spyware scans
-going into BIOS and cancelling all the passwords
-calling Lenovo telephone support (no help)

Does anyone know how to fix this or have any suggestions?
I would be very grateful for any input!!!

Cindy

Hi Cindy,

It sounds like you had it set to mount using a certificate since you say it used to mount automatically. Something may have happened to the certificate, or as you say it may have been something in an update.

A couple things to try. Open the CSS application itself (Start, Thinkvantage, Client Security Solution) and go to the section for securing data. You should see the .vol fie for the secure drive in the left hand pane - if not click Add (I think that right, not in front of my TP at the moment) and navigate to the file (probably in your My Documents folder).

Select the file, and look at the properties. It should show you if there are any passwords set. It's always a good idea to set a user and an administrator password even if you are using a certificate to access the file, because the passwords will alow you another way to get into it if the certificate gets hammered.

If it shows that passwords are set try your windows password, administrator account password, etc. (try leaving the password blank as well) and see if they work. I think there is also an option for if you can't remember the password to answer a set of security questions that you should have set when you created the volume.

If there are no passwords set try to set an administrator password (being sure to set it to something you will never forget) then use that to mount the volume.

Ed Gibbs

Thanks very much for the suggestions Ed. Unfortunately, I still can't get in.

When I view the properties for the volume it says "The disk has an administrator password." So, I go to passwords and try to enter any of my passwords for the administrator password, they are all rejected.

Fortunately, I back up all the data last weekend and this just means I can't access my work from the last week, but it's the priniciple of the matter! CSS shouldn't just lock me out of my own data... (I'm the only user and administrator on the machine).

Cindy
Edited to add - I'm obsessive about remembering my passwords, so this definitely isn't a forgotten password.

One other thought - there are different rules regarding what characters are recognized depending on whether you have Password or Passphrase enabled. Password won't recognize some special characters, capitalization, etc. and has a limit on the number of characters (I think it's 7 but I could be wrong).

If you set a passphrase with more than 7 characters, punctuation characters, mixed case, etc. and then it somehow got switched to password, that could hose it. Or conversely if you set it in password mode but entered a passphrase with some or all of those items, it may have only seen the ones that are allowed in passwords.

You could try playing with different options for password and passphrase, capitalization and punctuation variants on your normal passwords, etc. But if the amount of work lost is small it's probably quicker to just restore the backup and redo the work.

I agree that CSS should not do this - very bad. Especially since it's pretty much impractical to crack the file if it can't be accessed normally. Good thing you have a backup.

If you create another secure drive, be sure to set the passwords yourself and set up the security questions. Or if you've had it with CSS there are several open source alternativeswith similar functionality.

Ed Gibbs

Thanks for the additional thoughts, I appreciate your time and suggestions.

Tried all the potential password variants and nothing seems to work. I suppose it is my own fault for just using the software without reading in-depth about it, after all I've read in the last few days I would have certainly set it up differently than I did! At the same time, CSS shouldn't have such a silly error. I will definitely look into the options in the link you provided.

Thanks again and have a great weekend,
Cindy