DriveLock

Does anyone use this feature on their laptop? I understand what it does in loose terms, but can it be undone? ie Will you always have to enter the password at boot or can you shut it off (like if you sold your laptop or just didn't want to use it anymore)? I like the idea of it making my data more secure, but I'm not sure if I want it to be a permantent solution.

 

Nobody has ever turned this option on or knows how it works???

**nevermind...I finally found a pretty good article that explains this type of protection and states that it can be disabled (which is what I thought, but from all of the posts I found from people buying a laptop with the protection left on and them not having the password, I thought maybe it was permanent).
http://www.heise.de/ct/english/05/08/172/

 

I've never ever heard of this feature before.

 

I use drivelock, just in case of theft, since firefox remembers most of my passwords (bank,ebay,paypal,etc).

This will not protect your notebook, only the harddrive. The harddrive cannot function without the password.

Remember, it's a function provided by the harddrive, not by the computer, it's not possible to "reset" the password by emptying the bios, or similar. The only way to make your notebook operational after a theft would be popping a new hard drive inside.


The password is asked everytime you boot (a complete shutdown, or hibernation will ask for the password)

It is not asked when you go in the bios (but you need the old password to change the drivelock password!)

You can use a BIOS password, plus a drivelock password. They can be different. That way, you protect both the hard drive and the whole computer (the bios password can be reseted tho)

Hope that helps

Math

 

Has anyone tried enabling the TPM Enhanced DriveLock on his/her notebook? It's supposed to generate the password for DriveLock using the embedded TPM chip and thus tying the HDD to the particular notebook (as far as I understand it). I'm considering using a SmartCard as an authentication device and enabling DriveLock to protect data on the notebook. My question is - if I plug a second HDD (MultiBay II module) for backup purposes either in the notebook itself or in the advanced docking station, will it become locked too or not? I hope not (it wouldn't make sense) but I just wanted to have it confirmed. Thanks.