Kurvenal
asked on
Laptop Hard Drive ATA Password Utility
I am looking for a straightforward utility that I can use to manage passwords on password-protected hard drives. Note that I am not looking to circumvent the password, just manage it, ie unlock the drive and set a new password, etc. I have eSATA and USB ports on my laptop, and when a password-protected drive is connected via the eSATA port I can unlock it with Intel Matrix Storage Console, but I want to be able to unlock password-protected drives when I connect via USB since I may want to access the data from other systems without eSATA ports. For this reason it will also be important that I be able to download the utility from any computer and use it immediately without having to pay for it again, etc.
Please refer to this post for more background info: https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/24394451/Laptop-Hard-Drive-Encryption.html.
Please refer to this post for more background info: https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/24394451/Laptop-Hard-Drive-Encryption.html.
John
In my experience (IBM Thinkpads) if a hard drive was locked in a given computer, the drive has to go back to that computer to have the password changed. I tried moving a drive to a different computer of the same type and model number but could not change the HD drive password. I think what you want defeats the purpose of the lock. ... Thinkpads_User
ASKER
I am wondering if you might have used the built-in Trusted Platform Module (TPM) of your ThinkPad to set the HDD password, in which case I believe you are right it would be locked to the specific laptop. But I temporarily have two identical Dell laptops right now and was able to lock a hard drive on one and access it on the other using eSATA and Intel Matrix Storage Console to unlock it.
Thank you for that information. I need to ensure that no one but me can unlock my hard drive especially with commonly available tools. I realize you have the password here, but the Dell approach concerns me for my own use. .... Thinkpads_User
Hello Kurvenal - I think you have gotten the answer to your question and should consider closing it. ... Thinkpads_User
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