56
3.8
Hard Disk Drive Password Security Feature
The Hard Disk Drive Password Security feature blocks read and write accesses to the hard disk
drive until the correct password is given. Hard Disk Drive Passwords are set in BIOS SETUP and
are prompted for during BIOS POST. For convenient support of S3 resume, the system BIOS will
automatically unlock drives on resume from S3. Valid password characters are A-Z, a-z, and 0-9.
Passwords may be up to 19 characters in length.
The User hard disk drive password, when installed, will be required upon each power-cycle until
the Master Key or User hard disk drive password is submitted.
The Master Key hard disk drive password, when installed, will not lock the drive. The Master Key
hard disk drive password exists as an unlock override in the event that the User hard disk drive
password is forgotten. Only the installation of the User hard disk drive password will cause a hard
disk to be locked upon a system power-cycle.
Table 20 shows the effects of setting the Hard Disk Drive Passwords.
Table 20. Master Key and User Hard Drive Password Functions
Password Set
Password During Boot
Neither
None
Master only
None
User only
User only
Master and User Set
Master or User
During every POST, if a User hard disk drive password is set, POST execution will pause with the
following prompt to force the user to enter the Master Key or User hard disk drive password:
Enter Hard Disk Drive Password:
Upon successful entry of the Master Key or User hard disk drive password, the system will
continue with normal POST.
If the hard disk drive password is not correctly entered, the system will go back to the above
prompt. The user will have three attempts to correctly enter the hard disk
drive password. After
the third unsuccessful hard disk drive password attempt, the system will halt with the message:
Hard Disk Drive Password Entry Error
A manual power cycle will be required to resume system operation.
NOTE
As implemented on Intel NUC Kit NUC8i7HN, Hard Disk Drive Password Security is only supported
on SATA port 0 (M.2 ). The passwords are stored on the hard disk drive so if the drive is relocated
to another computer that does not support Hard Disk Drive Password Security feature, the drive
will not be accessible.
Currently, there is no industry standard for implementing Hard Disk Drive Password Security on
AHCI or NVME drives. Hard drive encryption can still be implemented and does not require Hard
Disk Drive Password Security.
3.9
BIOS Security Features
The BIOS includes security features that restrict access to the BIOS Setup program and who can
boot the computer. A supervisor password and a user password can be set for the BIOS Setup
program and for booting the computer, with the following restrictions:
