How to enter Thinkpad BIOS setup or ThinkShield Secure Wipe (supervisor password known, power on password known, HDD password unknown)

Thinkpad P1 Gen 3. I took these steps in the BIOS setup:

1. Set a Power on Password
2. Set a Supervisor Password (used the same password as the Power on Password)
3. Set an HDD2 Password (User password, no Master password set)

Now whenever I boot I get asked for:

1. Power on Password
2. HDD2 password

Apparently I fat-fingered the HDD2 password when I entered it and now I can't get past the password entry screen for that.

There seems to be no way around this. Even when I press F1 or F12 or Enter and see something like "Entering Setup", the system still asks for POP and HDD2 password.

Ultimately my goal is to do a secure erase of HDD2 so that I can use it again. Apparently for previous Thinkpad models you would download this Drive Erase Utility for Resetting the Cryptographic Key and Erasing the Solid State Drive. Now the instructions say:

Please use “ThinkShield Secure Wipe” feature for ThinkPad 2019 or later models by following below steps;

1. Reboot the system
2. Press F12 key to load BIOS boot menu
3. Press tab to switch to App Menu
4. Select "ThinkShield Secure Wipe" from the list
5. Follow on-screen instructions to wipe the disk

Which would be great if I could even get to that screen.

What's really bugging me is that I know the Supervisor password. If this were a corporate laptop and the employee had set their own Power on Password and then left the company, clearly as the Supervisor I would need a way to enter the BIOS Setup and reset the Power on Password. But I can't even enter the BIOS setup because I'm always prompted for the Power on Password (which in this case I also know, but in theory I wouldn't know in a corporate setting).

I did read in one SU post that someone had entered their Supervisor Password into the Power on Password field and that got them into the BIOS setup as the supervisor. I'm a bit doubtful of that claim, but anyway in my case the two passwords are the same so that's not helpful.

EDIT:

I got lucky and it ended up being a CAPS LOCK issue. So I was able to supply the HDD2 password and get to the ThinkShield Secure Wipe screen. Note however that ThinkShield Secure Wipe prompts for the HDD password and will not do the secure erase without it.

I'm leaving this question up for others who may be in my original situation of not knowing the HDD password.

1 Answer

According to the product manual, you are out of luck:

What to do if you forget your hard disk password
If you forget your user hard disk password or both user and master hard disk passwords, Lenovo cannot reset your passwords or recover data from the storage drive. You can contact a Lenovo authorized service provider to have the storage drive replaced. A fee will be charged for parts and service. If the storage drive is a CRU (Customer Replaceable Unit), you can also contact Lenovo to purchase a new storage drive to replace the old one by yourself.