novo button dangers?

On the Lenovo Ideapad Y510, otherwise a fine machine it seems, there is the Novo button. This button, when pressed when the machine is off, will allow one to restore the computer to its original state, erasing all data, etc.

I was shocked to find that this drastic step is not password protected! Means that anyone can turn off the computer and destroy all your data. Not only that, should the process be interrupted, the computer will be rendered non restartable. What an opening for malicious sabotage!

Perhaps this already has been discussed here? If so, would someone be kind enough to point me to the right place.

Thanks

 

The hard drive is already partitioned into a 30GB OS partition, and then the remaining 188 GB is supposed to be where you store your data. The NOVO button won't touch the data partition, so put your data there. You will need to reinstall your software, however.

Alternatively, you could delete the restoration partition and reinstall Vista and/or XP from scratch, which renders the Novo button inert at boot time. That's what I did.

-Warr

 

Thanks, Warr, for the insight. I'm glad to learn that the novo process will not delete anything in the data partition. BTW, are you sure about that? Because the warnings from Lenovo give a different impression.

I have three further questions:

1. If the hard disk is repartitioned, will the data still remain safe... for example, if the C: partition is made larger?

2. If someone steals the computer, goes through the Novo process, can they access the data that is not destroyed?

3. The procedure you mention, of disabling the novo button *at boot time*... does that mean it remains active when the computer is off?

Looking forward to further education...

Julius

 

Julius,

Actually, I am not 10000% positive about the data partition being saved during a Novo-restore, but the only reason I can think that Lenovo partitioned the drive to begin with is to keep your data safe through a restore. I work on computers for a living, and notebooks just don't normally come partitioned like this unless the user requests it, or there is a good reason. I think keeping your data through a restore is The Good Reason

As for your other questions:

1. I don't know if the Novo restore feature will still work if you change the partition size. I never tried it.

2. If the data is on the data partition, and Novo doesn't wipe it out, AND if you didn't use encryption tools to scramble your data on the data partition, then YES, the Novo button would allow someone to get at your data.

3. Yes, and I just tried this. I manually deleted the restore partition with Gparted and installed Dos, XP, and then Vista, along with Linux. Pressing the Novo button when the power is off fires up the restoration utility. I then tried to do a restore with it, but the utility said it couldn't find the restoration partition, and then quit, leaving all my data and OSes intact.

I use Norton Ghost and do regular OS backups to DVDs or other drives and or other partitions for testing, so I didn't need the Novo restoration utility. Now that I see it could be used to restore a stolen notebook to a factory-fresh state, I'm glad I did it.

-Warr

 

thanks again, Warr

When you refer to the restoration partition, do you mean the OS partition, that is, the C: drive?

Julius

 

No, the Restoration Partition refers to the hidden partition (that is drive letter-less to Windows) that stores the compressed files needed to do a Novo-based system restore.

It is sometimes called the "Recovery Partition" by some vendors.

-Warr