On Thursday 18 August 2005 09:38, Dimitry Andric wrote: > See the atactl(8) manpage, in particular the sec* commands.
I was looking that that manpage yesterday. It confirms that it is possible to make the disk data inaccessible to anyone without the user password. > However, I don't believe these harddisks actually encrypt all data on the > disk, > so it's not really a security measure. OK. How long will it take you to get data off a disk made maximally secure via atactl commands? (Answer: most likely you won't get the data, ever). Also note that if atactl is used to set the user disk password, you will not be able to boot from a computer with a bios that doesn't offer you the opportunity to type in the user password you set while the system was running. That's what the 'freeze' command is for. (You did read about the freeze command, right?) > By zapping the firmware, or triggering some other magic switch, you're > probably always able to unlock these disks. That does seem to be the case right now for at least one company specializing in disk data recovery. But that approach to getting the data is expensive and time consuming. In other words: forget about getting access to password-protected disk data with a screwdriver and another computer.
