Passwords; Power-On Password; Hard Disk Password; Supervisor Password - Lenovo ThinkPad T420s Hardware Maintenance Manual

Note: After restoring a drive to the factory default settings, you might need to reinstall some device drivers.

Passwords

As many as three passwords may be needed for any ThinkPad Notebook: the power-on password, the
hard disk password, and the supervisor password.
If any of these passwords has been set, a prompt for it will be displayed on the screen whenever the
computer is turned on. The computer does not start until the password is entered.
Note: If only a supervisor password is set, the password prompt will not be displayed when the operating
system is started.

Power-on password

A power-on password protects the system from being powered on by an unauthorized person. The
password must be turned on before an operating system can be started. For instructions on how to remove
the power-on password, see "How to remove the power-on password" on page 49.

Hard disk password

There are two hard disk passwords:
• User hard disk password - for the user
• Master hard disk password - for the system administrator, who can use it to get access to the hard disk
even if the user has changed the user hard disk password
Note: There are two modes for the hard disk password: User only and Master + User. The Master + User
mode requires two hard disk passwords; the system administrator enters both in the same operation. The
system administrator then provides the user hard disk password to the system user.
Attention: If the user hard disk password has been forgotten, check whether a master hard disk password
has been set. If it has, it can be used for access to the hard disk drive. If no master hard disk password is
available, neither Lenovo nor Lenovo authorized service technicians provide any services to reset either
the user or the master hard disk password, or to recover data from the hard disk drive. The hard disk drive
can be replaced for a scheduled fee.
For how to remove the hard disk password, see "How to remove the hard disk password" on page 50.

Supervisor password

A supervisor password protects the system information stored in the ThinkPad Setup. The user must enter
the supervisor password in order to get access to the ThinkPad Setup and change the system configuration.
Attention: If the supervisor password has been forgotten and cannot be made available to the service
technician, there is no service procedure to reset the password. The system board must be replaced for
a scheduled fee.

How to remove the power-on password

To remove a power-on password that you have forgotten, do the following:
(A) If no supervisor password has been set:
1. Turn off the computer and disconnect the ac power adapter.
2. Remove the battery pack. For how to remove the battery pack, see "1010 Battery pack" on page 68.
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Chapter 4 Related service information
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