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Security Passwords
The BIOS includes security features that restrict whether the BIOS Setup program can
be accessed and who can boot the computer. A supervisor password and a user
password can be set for the BIOS Setup and for booting the computer, with the
following restrictions:
• The supervisor password gives unrestricted access to view and change all Setup
options. If only the supervisor password is set, pressing <Enter> at the password
prompt of Setup gives the user restricted access to Setup.
• If both the supervisor and user passwords are set, you must enter either the
supervisor password or the user password to access Setup. Setup options are then
available for viewing and changing depending on whether the supervisor or user
password was entered.
• Setting a user password restricts who can boot the computer. The password
prompt is displayed before the computer is booted. If only the supervisor
password is set, the computer boots without asking for a password. If both
passwords are set, you can enter either password to boot the computer.
For instructions on resetting the password, see Clearing BIOS Security Pass
words on
page 60.
Hard Disk Drive Passwords
The hard disk drive password security feature will lock a particular drive from read or
write accesses until the hard disk drive password is entered at the startup prompt.
Passwords are set in BIOS Setup under the “Security” heading, but do not interact
with other system passwords.
There are two levels of hard disk drive passwords: Master and User. Both the Master
and User hard disk drive passwords can be used to unlock a locked drive. Valid
passwords are between two and eight characters.
The passwords function as follows:
• The User hard disk drive password will lock the drive and block read and write
accesses to a hard disk upon each power cycle or reset.
• The Master hard disk drive password by itself will not lock the drive, but instead
acts as an unlock override in the event that the User hard disk drive password is
unavailable. Only the installation of the User hard disk drive password will cause a
hard disk to be locked upon a system power cycle or reset.
For convenient support of S3 resume, the system BIOS will automatically unlock drives
on resume from S3 and will not prompt for a hard disk drive password.
NOTE
The BIOS hard disk drive password security feature can only be used on ATA hard
disks that support the ATA Security Mode feature set. It supports Serial ATA hard disk
drives in IDE, AHCI, and RAID modes.
For instructions on resetting the password, see Clearing or Changing Hard Disk Drive
Passwords
on page 61.