bios/hdd paswords

[inot66]

hi,
i have a thinkpad T-20.
Are the hdd password and the bios password the same thing?
Or is the bios pass not connected with the hdrive?
All of a sudden i turn it on ,i get a screen asking for a bios password.
Never happened before,any suggestions?
Thank you,bonnie sue

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to our forum.
Have a look at this, which icon do you see?
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59377

[rkawakami]

Note that with the T2x systems, the Supervisor (BIOS) password icon looks exactly like the Power-on password icon; a squarish-looking "box" which is supposed to represent a computer screen. The HD password, the Supervisor password and the Power-on password are three entirely different things. Each one of those passwords can be entirely different from the others (as they should be for security reasons). The HD password stays with the drive. If you try moving it to another system, it will still prompt you. The Supervisor password stays with the system (it's not stored on the HD). The Power-on password does too, but there's also a published way to remove it.

If your system "all of a sudden" has prompted you for a password, then I would have to assume that you are looking at a Supervisor password. A HD password would prompt you every time the system is booted. Same for a Power-on password. A Supervisor password appears only when you try to access the BIOS. Why has it suddenly appeared? Most likely the CMOS (backup) battery has gone dead and somebody before you had set the Supervisor password. When this backup battery dies, the system loses the date and time. In order to reset the date and time, you have to access the BIOS. Since the system attempts to pass control into the BIOS to allow you to do so, if there's any Supervisor password set, it prompts you. You could have been using the system all along with the password in place. If you have never tried to gain access to the BIOS, then you would never know that a password has been invoked.

Please keep in mind that the rules of this forum prohibit public discussion of any password hacking.

[richk]

A hard drive PW will show a "1" next to the lock (or a "2" for ultrabay HDD") Some disk failures can make the disk think it has a password.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check your PM ("new messages" at the top of this page)