Multiple passwords

[clarkvance]

I have inherited a Thinkpad 420 from my recently deceased sister. She provided 4 passwords for it, but I know nothing about operating this machine and don't know what to do with the passwords or if they go in a certain order. There is one for Power-On, one for Supervisor, one for Harddisk and one more with no label. I would greatly appreciate any guidance in this. Thanks!

[Neil]

Welcome to ThinkPad Forums!

Power On Password: Name tells all. Enter this one when prompted at power on.
HDD Password: I've only used this one once, a long time ago. I think you will need to enter it in order to boot from hard drive.
Supervisor Password: Needed to make any BIOS changes.
Other: Is likely a Windows login password.

[clarkvance]

Thank you for that information. Do you enter them one after the other? And are they all required in order to have access?

[rkawakami]

Assuming you are starting from a powered off state:

Turn the laptop on
If a power-on password is enabled you'll see a lock icon alongside a box-looking item (screen, computer)
Enter the power-on password then press the Enter key
If a hard drive password is enabled you'll see a lock icon alongside a drum (indicating a disk drive)
Enter the hard drive password then press the Enter key
If a Windows password is enabled you'll see the Windows welcome screen and a prompt to enter the password
* You will need the Supervisor (BIOS) password if you actively wish to enter the BIOS. To do this you have to hold the F1 key down during power up.
* You will definitely need the Supervisor password IF the password has been enabled AND the backup battery in the computer dies OR is removed. You should see an error message indicating that the system time has been lost when you power on. The box icon will look the same as the power-on password. Enter the Supervisor password instead. You will need to enter the current date and time and save settings. The reason is that the backup battery keeps the system time when the laptop is off. Losing backup power causes the loss of time. The BIOS is the only place where you can enter this information. So the system is forced to enter the BIOS to correct the time. Also, the power-on password will automatically be disabled in this case (loss of backup power).

edit: * Clarified some of the Supervisor password usage.

[clarkvance]

Thank you so much for your detailed information--just what I was looking for!

[Neil]

It may also be worth noting that if you don't want all those passwords enabled, once you gain access to the machine using the passwords provided, you can disable any or all of them.

[cadillacmike68]

AND, if you make them all the same, you can get into the system by entering the PW only once.

I only use them when traveling by air, and I use different ones.

DO NOT forget a supervisor PW or HDD PW. You can say goodbye to the system board or HDD as appropriate and you are Not allowed to ask about removing them on this board.

[dr_st]

AND, if you make them all the same, you can get into the system by entering the PW only once.

I think it works for a combination of supervisor, power-on and 1 HDD password. However, on my T430s I set up the same password for both storage devices (internal SATA + mSATA) - and I still have to enter it twice. Maybe if I also had the same password configured for power-on, I wouldn't have to? Or maybe it only works for the first HDD?

[cadillacmike68]

I re remember on this T61 that if I set the power on pw, HDD1 and HDD2 to the same and set the supervisor to something different, entering the power on password was the only PW needed. If I put the supervisor PW in then I would have to enter the HDD PW. The downside to having an HDD PW is that you can no longer hot swap the HDDs. You Can safely remove one but when you the another PW protected HDD in the system ignores it.

It also wreaked havoc with backups with all the rebooting, etc, so I stopped using HDD PWs hare at home / office.

[dr_st]

I re remember on this T61 that if I set the power on pw, HDD1 and HDD2 to the same and set the supervisor to something different, entering the power on password was the only PW needed.

I just confirmed the same behavior on the T430s. The power-on password automatically validates both hard drive passwords, provided that it is the same. I don't use a supervisor password.

I don't remember the details: is there a chance that I can get permanently locked out of the PC if the CMOS battery dies with the power-on password set? Or is it only with a supervisor password?

The downside to having an HDD PW is that you can no longer hot swap the HDDs. You Can safely remove one but when you the another PW protected HDD in the system ignores it.

Even if the password is the same? I guess it does not store it in memory, and does not provide an interface to re-enter it except during boot...

[rkawakami]

I don't remember the details: is there a chance that I can get permanently locked out of the PC if the CMOS battery dies with the power-on password set? Or is it only with a supervisor password?

Only the Supervisor (BIOS) password. Removing the CMOS battery will disable (remove) any power-on password but if there's a Supervisor password set, the next time the laptop is booted it will ask for that password (because the date/time has been lost and the only way to reset it is from the BIOS). That's when you can get locked out of the system if you don't remember the Supervisor password.

[dr_st]

Thanks! So basically as long as I don't forget the password(s), I should be good. I don't plan to set a supervisor password anyways.

[RealBlackStuff]

The HDD/SSD password is stored in the drive's firmware, not in BIOS.

[cadillacmike68]

I have Never been able to hot swap HDDs if they had a PW, even if it was the same PW. I always had to re-boot, or power off and back on.