Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I installed a SSD in my laptop and did a secure erase with hdparm. For that I needed to set a password. I forgot to remove it again, so when I rebooted I got prompted for the password.
Unfortunatly it seems like the bios and hdparm use different encodings(?) so I cant unlock the drive when booting. Also I cannot select a different boot device which renders my laptop unaccessible for me at the moment. Do you have any ideas how I can boot from another medium or unlock the SSD?

Welcome to the forum!
Sorry you have the difficulty you describe. You are correct that if the HDD Password is set and not recognized at bootup, then there is no possibility of booting from an alternate boot device. Perhaps there is a good reason for that "feature", but it seems more an oversight in the design rather than a deliberate feature.

Consequently, you will have to remove that SSD from the Thinkpad's primary drive bay, and connect it via USB or to another machine in order to "play" with the HDD password and try to unlock it. The Thinkpad's BIOS will not permit any activity until either you remove that SSD from the machine's primary drive bay ..or.. you supply the proper HDD Password.