T40p security subsystem conondrum after repair

[gtratter]

Model: 2373-X5X
I purchased this unit refurbished with a 3 year warranty which came in handy as I just had the Mother board replaced. Everything works fine, except I cannot get the embedded security subsystem UVM or PM to work again.
I have downloaded the drivers, enabled the hardware, pointed the installation program to the old key file, etc. etc. No matter what I do I only get an Error code: 0x02d

Of course I can use Win XP's password scheme, but I really liked the UVM and would very much want to get it to work again. Any ideas where to begin?

[darrenf]

gtratter,

I don't have an answer for you, but since you've used the ESS, I wondered if you would be so kind as to explain it in general terms to me. The documentation is a bit daunting and I don't know where to start.

What I *hoped* I could get from it is hardware-optimized on the fly encryption/decryption of the whole drive (similar to the "DriveCrypt Plus Pack" software) secured by passphrase. When I started to read the documentation, it sounds like everything is encoded using a public/private key pair in the ESS chip which leaves me wondering if I could recover my drive on another machine. (Actually, I'm sure this is possible, I just don't understand the mechanism for it).

Lastly, it looks like there is a system for administering encryption keys centrally which makes sense for companies. It is easy to use and administer on a single machine though?

Thanks for any time you can take to clue me in!

-darren

[mushrew]

gtratter,

I don't have an answer for you, but since you've used the ESS, I wondered if you would be so kind as to explain it in general terms to me. The documentation is a bit daunting and I don't know where to start.

What I *hoped* I could get from it is hardware-optimized on the fly encryption/decryption of the whole drive (similar to the "DriveCrypt Plus Pack" software) secured by passphrase. When I started to read the documentation, it sounds like everything is encoded using a public/private key pair in the ESS chip which leaves me wondering if I could recover my drive on another machine. (Actually, I'm sure this is possible, I just don't understand the mechanism for it).

Lastly, it looks like there is a system for administering encryption keys centrally which makes sense for companies. It is easy to use and administer on a single machine though?

Thanks for any time you can take to clue me in!

-darren

i am also interested!

[gtratter]

gtratter,

I don't have an answer for you, but since you've used the ESS, I wondered if you would be so kind as to explain it in general terms to me. The documentation is a bit daunting and I don't know where to start.

What I *hoped* I could get from it is hardware-optimized on the fly encryption/decryption of the whole drive (similar to the "DriveCrypt Plus Pack" software) secured by passphrase. When I started to read the documentation, it sounds like everything is encoded using a public/private key pair in the ESS chip which leaves me wondering if I could recover my drive on another machine. (Actually, I'm sure this is possible, I just don't understand the mechanism for it).

Lastly, it looks like there is a system for administering encryption keys centrally which makes sense for companies. It is easy to use and administer on a single machine though?

Thanks for any time you can take to clue me in!

-darren

Darren,
I am hardly the expert myself to be qualified to clue you in on the ESS. In general terms it does exactly what you described above. You have many options to set (i.e. which files/folders to encrypt, the encryption strength, access rights and so on).
I am an end user and thus not qualified to explain the in's and out's - other than saying, when it worked I really liked it - because one pass phrase did it all for me through the chip. Maybe and hopefully there is someone out there who can answer your and my questions?

Later,
G

[Leon]

there are a lot of us (including me) who would love to use this, but are confused by it.. maybe there's a tutorial hidden somewhere

[scottv]

there are a lot of us (including me) who would love to use this, but are confused by it.. maybe there's a tutorial hidden somewhere

No kidding!!

I read the IBM docs and am completely lost. I'm worried that I will set everything up and then one time, just one time, forget to upgrade/enable/disable things in the right order and blam... data can never be accesed again.

Is there an easy to read, easy to understand tutorial somewhere??