Thinkpad Hard Drive Password

Hi,

How secure is the Thinkpad Hard Drive Password?

Can a Hard Drive Password enabled hard drive be read (without the password) if removed and installed on another Thinkpad?

I've heard the some manufacture's hard drive passwords are actually part of the hard drive itself, and there are programs that can be googled that can reset these passwords. Would that defeat a drive with a Thinkpad enabled HDP as well?

I'm just trying to figure out the security options I want to enable on my new X200s.

Thanks in advance!

 

Hi knowthenazz

Could you (also) be referring to drives with FDE (Full Disk Encryption) capability?

 

No, I don't think he is. Full encryption would be the safest but having a hard drive password is a good idea as well. I have a bios and hard drive password enabled.

 

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me.

And no, I wasn't referring to a FDE drive, just the hard drive password at boot.

jaredy, by any chance is your power on password the same as your hard drive password? If this is the case, do you only get prompted for one password at boot?

Does anyone know if, contrary to what Lenovo/IBM says, is resetting your hard drive password relatively easy by using a 3rd party application?

Can it be defeated by installing it on a second Thinkpad?

Thanks!

 

I'm not positive on how secure the hard drive password is. However, if you want an extremely secure, free, and portable solution I highly recommend TrueCrypt system partition encryption. It encrypts ALL of the data on the drive and uses a similar pre-boot password for authentication. The encryption/decryption is done in software, but the performance penalty is generally quite mild.

 

Hi jonlumpkin,

Thanks for your input.

I appreciate your truecrypt suggestion, but, I actually plan on using an encrypted virtual drive (PGPdisk) for my confidential data, as well as using the Thinkpad hard drive password. I'm just trying to determine how much security the hard drive password adds.

Do you mind if I ask what passwords you have enabled on your Thinkpad?

Thanks!

 

You can use TrueCrypt for making encrypted virtual drives among other things. It's much more up to date than PGPDisk(if using the freeware one) and free and without drm(if using the commerical drm controlled one).

 

I use a BIOS administration password (only for changing settings). An encrypted TrueCrypt system drive in concert with separate encrypted containers for personal files. Naturally I also use a Windows password and/or the fingerprint reader for login purposes.

 

Thanks for sharing.

I guess you don't need a power on password if your drive is encrypted, and they can't access your bios. Makes sense.

Thanks!