Hitachi 7K200 Bulk Data Encryption. Anyone knows more details about it?

[smartins]

I just ordered a T61 and plan to upgrade it with a 2Gb stick (3 Gb total) and a 7200 RPM disk. The 7K200 seems to be the best one in terms of performance and the "Bulk Data Encryption" feature would also be a big plus for me.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any specifics on how the 2K200 Bulk Data Encryption feature works.

Anyone knows any more details like if it's software activated or requires special hardware and any performance penalties?

Thanks!

Steven

[FOSA]

The Bulk Data Encryption feature comes with the E7K200 model NOT the 7K200

Read here:-

http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techl...velstar_E7K200

[smartins]

Thanks for the information.

I have just saw a post on thinkpads.com asking the exact same thing and the answer follows:

Not all Hitachi 7k200's support encryption. Unfortunately the Hitachi docs are quite cryptic when it comes to that subject.
The Hitachi drives that support encryption have the following SKU #'s:
80GB - 0A53066
100GB - 0A53067
120GB - 0A53068
160GB - 0A53069
200GB - 0A53070

I personally couldn't find the 200GB one in any store. The SKU on one's in zipzoomfly or newegg is 0A50940...
Anyway, I was told by a support rep that in order to enable the encryption you only need to enable the hard drive password in the BIOS.
And in order to render the data useless on the drive you need to remove the password.

Keep in mind that if you enable the encryption you will need to type your hard drive password every time your system starts.