Passwords; Power-On Password; Hard Disk Password; Supervisor Password - Lenovo ThinkPad S540 Hardware Maintenance Manual

Advanced startup options
Advanced startup options enable you to change the startup settings of the Windows operating system, start
the computer from an external device, or restore the Windows operating system from a system image.
To use the advanced startup options, do the following:
1. Move your cursor to the bottom-right corner of the screen to bring up the charms. Click Settings
➙ Change PC settings ➙ General.
2. In the Advanced startup section, click Restart now ➙ Troubleshoot ➙ Advanced options.
3. Restart the computer following the instructions on the screen.
For more details about the Windows recovery solutions, refer to the help information system of the Windows
8 operating system.

Passwords

As many as three passwords may be needed for any ThinkPad notebook computer: 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 entered 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 35.

Hard disk password

There are two kinds of 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 35.

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.
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Hardware Maintenance Manual