Momentus 5400 FDE.2: Data Encryption On-a-Drive

Disk Encryption Practice

When you install the software, it will prompt you to change your Windows password. Make sure you only use the Seagate software for user or password changes, or the encryption hardware will not be informed about the changes, forcing you into recovery mode.

After installation of the security software, there will be a small second partition on your Momentus 5400 FDE.2 hard drive. This will be the boot partition from now on, and controls access to your vital data partition. In this way, the software can prompt you for the password to grant access to the encrypted partition. That partition appears to be empty if the drive is hooked up to another system.

When it is started for the first time, the FinallySecure software will be in password capture mode, which means that it allows you to start directly into Windows, where it will grab your username and password for every subsequent restart. The software is based on the single sign-on principle, which means that you won't have to provide your username and password twice. It also means that you shouldn't change your Windows password in Windows, but rather use the FinallySecure password manager instead. If you don't use the manager, you will have to run a password recovery, because FinallySecure won't know about the (legitimate) change. The same applies to a user change.