IBM ThinkPad hard drives have the ability to by secured by setting a supervisor password. The hard drive cannot be used and none of the data on it can be accessed without first entering the supervisor password. If it is no longer necessary to password-protect your hard drive, removing the password allows the hard drive to be accessed more quickly by bypassing the password input steps. Once a password has been set, it can be changed or removed at any time.
1). Turn off the computer that the hard drive is installed in. Leave the computer off for at least five seconds.