If you want to protect your computer against unwanted access, you may consider setting a hard drive password via the BIOS/UEFI.
So a hard drive password prevents someone from gaining physical access to the hard drive and reading or modifying the data without the correct password. It is an extra layer of security that is applied in addition to the operating system password.
When a password is set, this password must be entered before the operating system loads during the boot process. So the advantage is that the data on the hard drive cannot be read or changed without the password. This provides protection against unauthorized access, but also protection in the event of data loss, such as theft. It is a measure you can take before you go on holiday, for example.
Always save the hard drive password carefully. Write it down somewhere, save it in your cell phone or something like that. If you forget the password, accessing the hard drive is very difficult, not impossible, but help from an external specialist is required.
Set hard drive password via BIOS/UEFI
To start, you need to access the UEFI on the most recent computers. This works in the following way.
Access to UEFI/BIOS via key
Restart your computer and immediately press the appropriate key to enter the BIOS menu. This could be one of the keys commonly listed during startup, such as Delete, F2, F10, or Esc. If you don't know the exact key, check your computer's documentation.
Access UEFI/BIOS via Windows
You can also access the UEFI settings via Windows.
Right-click on the Start button. Click on “Settings” in the menu, then click on “System” on the left and then on “System Restore”. Click on the “Restart Now” button in the “Advanced Startup Options”.
Now restart your PC to change the boot settings.
After booting, click on “troubleshoot”, then “advanced options”, then “UEFI firmware settings” and click “Restart”.
You now have access to the BIOS/UEFI settings. In the UEFI/BIOS, go to “security” or “security”.
Then press something like “Set hard disk passwords”. The text may differ depending on the type of UEFI or BIOS.
Now enter a master and user password. These can be two different passwords, but this is not necessary.
Save the changes to the UEFI/BIOS and restart the computer. The computer will now ask for a password when booting from the UEFI/BIOS.
Remove hard drive password from UEFI/BIOS
If you want to remove the password from the UEFI/BIOS, follow the steps above to return to the security settings in the UEFI.
Press “Change master password” or something similar. Again, this varies by UEFI/BIOS model. Enter the old password once and no password twice by pressing ENTER. You have overwritten the old password with “nothing” and the hard disk password has been deleted.
I hope to have informed you with this. Thank you for reading!