I hear that password protecting your computer's hard drive is not the best protection--it can be thwarted by skilled computer hacker--but it's easy to do, so why not? Became standard practice in the companies I've worked for recently. Risk: What do you do if you forget the password?

Print and perform the following actions to reset your Hard Disk Password:

  1. Shut down and power up your laptop.
  2. Press F1 as soon as the splash screen is displayed.
  3. Using the arrow keys on the BIOS Setup Utility Menu, select Security (or Password), then press Enter.
  4. Select Password.
  5. Select Hard Disk1 Password and press Enter (there may be more than one disk drive icon, the icon(s) may be labeled: HDD, HDD-1, #HDD-2, or something similar). Repeat these steps to assign the same password to each additional hard disk (if installed).
  6. Select User only, press Enter.
  7. Enter a nontrivial password (up to seven characters) and press Enter.
  8. Re-enter the password and press Enter.
  9. Press Enter to accept password changes.
  10. At the Changes have been saved prompt, press Enter.
  11. Press F10 to save and exit BIOS Setup.
  12. At the Save configuration changes and exit now? prompt, select Yes.
  13. Don't forget this password. You cannot use your hard drive without it.
The Little Black Book of Computer Security, Second Edition
by Joel Dubin

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