Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
More info?)
Nicholas Andrade wrote:
> David Efflandt wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 30 Mar 2005, Phil Schuman <pschuman_nospam_me@interserv.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> In looking at the Bios for our Dell C610,
>>> there are 3 passwords avail -
>>> What is different between them,
>>> and when do they get displayed ?
>>> I set them up, but only got one screen at boot time.
>>> Primary ?
>>> Admin
>>> Hard Disk ?
>>
>>
>>
>> Primary - would be required to boot (or do anything else).
>> Admin - would require password for BIOS (CMOS setup), but not to boot.
>> Hard Disk - would protect the hard drive even if moved to a different PC.
>>
>> When a co-worker forgot the boot password on an old laptop he dug up
>> while
>> moving, fortunately he had not set a hard disk password. So I was
>> able to
>> put the drive on another laptop to get his old files.
>
>
> Out of curiousity, does setting the primary password automatically set
> the HDD password? On IBM Thinkpads (at least the 600 series), this was
> the case. I had unfortunately ran into a bug on the 600e that caused the
> admin password (the equivalent to the primary on Dells) get scrambled
> when I replaced the CMOS battery. Cracking the password was quite a
> hassle (had to build a eeprom reader and sodder it to 3 points on the
> board), so it may be good to know if this occurs in advance.
It doesn't work that way on my Latitude CPxJ. Setting the HD password is
entirely independent. Doesn't actually prove anything of course, but
might be encouraging if you assume Dell follow the same principle on
later machines.