Using HDD password with ASUS BIOS?

[Fjodor2001]

Hi,

I have some questions regarding how the HDD password functionality (as described here) works on ASUS motherboards:

1. Is it possible to set HDD passwords for multiple disks (e.g. if you have a server computer with 4 drives), or only for the primary boot disk?

2. Will the BIOS prompt the user for HDD password on each boot up? Or does the BIOS automatically send the HDD password that has been set in the BIOS to the HDD?

Thanks!

 

[Fjodor2001]

I've done some investigation myself. It seems like both the drive and the motherboard BIOS must support "ATA Security Mode Feature Set" commands to be able to set the HDD password (see the presentation I linked to in my original post, which describes how it works very well). Basically all modern HDDs and SDDs support this. And apparently support for this is quite common on laptop motherboard BIOS:es.

But there are practically no desktop motherboards that support it! Some Dell and HP pre-build desktop computers support it, but I have not found any motherboards that you buy separately that supports it. Isn't that really strange? I mean if you buy a high end enthusiast motherboard from e.g. ASUS you would expect it to have a full BIOS feature set, right? :\