User Password on a laptop

[Jeff Malka]

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop running pre-installed XP Home. Within the
Toshiba "tools" is a screen to enter a "User password" and also some text (I
entered my address and phone number). There is also a "Supervisor password"
which I have not yet set.

Whenever the laptop reboots or the screensaver is on it asks for a password
before allowing the user to proceed further and boot up.

Is this the best I can do for security and to protect my personal data in
case the laptop is stolen? Would this be the BIOS password?

This laptop does not have a built-in floppy drive but has a RW CD-ROM.

Thanks.

--

Jeff McPherson
Email address deliberately false to avoid spam
(e-mail address removed)
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free by AVG

 

[Willit]

You can put a BIOS password on it, you can set a
administrator password and if you have PRO you can encrypt
the data. A big chain and a Smith & Wesson will work or
lock it in a safe.

 

[NobodyMan]

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop running pre-installed XP Home. Within the
Toshiba "tools" is a screen to enter a "User password" and also some text (I
entered my address and phone number). There is also a "Supervisor password"
which I have not yet set.

Whenever the laptop reboots or the screensaver is on it asks for a password
before allowing the user to proceed further and boot up.

Is this the best I can do for security and to protect my personal data in
case the laptop is stolen? Would this be the BIOS password?

This laptop does not have a built-in floppy drive but has a RW CD-ROM.

Thanks.

You can use a BIOS startup password, but beware. I did this on a
laptop once; after about six months the damm thing reset the p/w to
something I didn't specify and I couldn't get past it. I had to put
it in a shop so they could pop the CMOS battery and clear the p/w.
That's easy to do on a tower/desktop, but a major pain in the ass with
a notebook.

Side note: this is not uncommon. I hear of this complaint from many
laptop users. I'd avoid the BIOS startup on notebook/laptops and just
keep your eye on it, or lock it up if you aren't using it.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop running pre-installed XP Home. Within the
Toshiba "tools" is a screen to enter a "User password" and also some text (I
entered my address and phone number). There is also a "Supervisor password"
which I have not yet set.

Whenever the laptop reboots or the screensaver is on it asks for a password
before allowing the user to proceed further and boot up.

Is this the best I can do for security and to protect my personal data in
case the laptop is stolen? Would this be the BIOS password?

THe screensaver password and one after the Windows logo are passwords
that are part of Windows. For fuller security - so no one could boot a
CD and run a program to bypass those - you would need BIOS ones too,
which is what the Toshiba program would set. Usually there is one there
to allow boot to proceed at power on (the User one) and one that allows
you to get into the BIOS setup to change things (the Supervisor one).
You would also need to ensure that boot order was set only to boot the
Hard drive.

There would still be a possibility of someone clearing the CMOS memory
of the machine, effectively setting those passwords back to null. If
you have *really* sensitive data, encryption using a password to that
which is quite separate and not recorded on the machine would be needed.
Note that the included encryption in Windows, while it is very strong,
is open when you log ion, so is no more secure than the password you use
there

 

[Dixon_C]

The Toshiba Satellite, Pros, Tecra and Portege notebooks requires a
BIOS reset which is done via hardware pluged into the parallel port
(basically pinouts). Plug it in and start the notebook and turn it
off again. It resets the unit and starts back to normal. You can
re-create a new password in the bios from there on. The BIOS does NOT
reset it's password automatically as mentioned by someone previously.