DriveLock on Compaq/HP Laptops? 57
whois asks: "I just purchased a new Compaq laptop and noticed a feature in the BIOS called 'DriveLock'. It locks the drive so a password has to be entered on startup. If you take the drive out and put it in a system without a drivelock BIOS, the system can't boot from the drive. There is very little information on the web about this feature. Most people talk about what happens if you lose your password (buy a new drive) and what happens if you want to reuse the drive in other machines (you can't). What I want to know is the tech specs on this. Is it security through obscurity, and just sets a password in the drive BIOS, or is it doing encryption in hardware? My guess is it's the former, but I'm submitting to find out if anyone knows the real story. Here is an HP doc that mentions it in passing." According to information provided by the included links, this "feature" isn't something you can disable, either. Are we likely to see more manufacturers tie hardware together like this, in the future?
Isn't this what the XBOX does? (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like the same ATA standard passwords that the XBOX uses. See for example http://www.siliconice.net/XBOX/Guides/hdd_password .shtml [siliconice.net]
BalamATA Spec (Score:5, Informative)
Re:If it were just a bios password (Score:1, Informative)
For xbox there are tools to disable it, maybe some will follow for this harddisks.
I also guess the disk is not fully encrypted, so its probably not really secure. If compaq/hp really think that is a clever option, then it should be an option to unlock it in the bios (oc with the correct password), everything else is just stupid and not very customer friendly.
but good to know, i will never buy a laptop with this kind of clever security.
Re:ATA Spec (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Use the fdisk, Luke! (Score:4, Informative)
Possible solution? (Score:2, Informative)
TiVo hacking faq on drive locking [samba.org]
Unlock program for Quantum TiVo hard drive [9thtee.com]
Supposedly the QUnlock.exe program will permanently unlock the drive, but then again it could be some kind of TiVo "locking" and not the hard drive password locking we're talking about.
The hard drive lock.. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:ATA Spec (Score:5, Informative)
You can reset the password but you lose all the data currently on the drive, look up SMART, I believe smartmontools under linux can tinker with these settings.
Re:If it were just a bios password (Score:2, Informative)
Hmm... I wonder if swapping the controller board on the drive would workaround this "security" feature?