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So, I have this Alienware m15 which has a Seagate Firecuda SSHD ST1000LX015-1U7172. I added another Samsung EVO 970 m2 SSD for OS and when I tried to enable the encryption on this SSD, I accidentally found that maybe the SSHD can be encrypted by BIOS password.

Here is what I have done: I enabled "HDD Password" in BIOS, then it begins to ask the password at each bootup. If I refuse to give the password, the SSD(where the OS is) loads but I won't be able to see the SSHD, and Windows prompt me to initialize/format that SSHD. Then I tried to search google or Seagate website, it does not mention anything about encryption. However, the behavior I observe(without input the password at bootup, OS cannot read the disk) is very alike it is supporting class0 encryption.

I would like to know if there is anyone have experience checking such issue? How could I know if this SSHD supports class0 and if it's encrypted?

Kenster
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chrisky
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1 Answers1

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Based on your experience, sounds like it does, even though Seagate doesn't list it

...which is basically agreeing with what you've already said.

Seagate nicely maintains a website with a list of all their drives that support SED; conveniently, the ST1000LX015 is not on it. Case closed, right?

Well, strangely, they do list several drives on the list that are startlingly close; so close, it's suspicious. What's more suspicious though is that several of the drives on the list don't actually seem to be available. Namely, the ST1000LM0015 (which appears to be a typo of the ST1000LM015), and the ST500LX016 and ST500LX013 (which appear to exist, but not be available for commercial purchase ATM.) So, something strange is going on here. This is further complicated by the fact that the CSRC, who maintains official certificates and information in a central database, is down thanks to the government shutdown, and the archive.org version is quite out of date.

Meanwhile, though I didn't find any mention of the drive explicitly supporting SED, a bit labeled "Device Encrypts All User Data on the device." is listed in the spec sheet.

IMO, the easiest thing to do is just going to be to check yourself. You can follow Puget System's guide or this virtually identical one already on Super User, but the basic premise is to install Linux, run blkid to find your drive, then run sudo hdparm -I /dev/____ with the blank filled in with the information you got earlier.

Note also that the 970 EVO definitely does support SED, so make sure not to get your drives confused! (Same goes for you, laptop.)

JMY1000
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