Are any hardware based encrypted SSD's Not Bios Relient?

[StonyVision]

Well are any of these SSD's that boast hardware based full disk encryption self reliant to set a HDD Boot Password or do all of them require a bios which supports HDD Passwords?

 

[Pinhedd]

Well are any of these SSD's that boast hardware based full disk encryption self reliant to set a HDD Boot Password or do all of them require a bios which supports HDD Passwords?

They employ the ATA command set, the same as all ATA hard disk drives. The ATA command set contains support for a disk password. If set, the password must be entered before the drive can be placed into a mode in which it responds to access commands. This is independent of the drive encryption. Drive encryption on SSDs occurs at the controller level, it encrypts the data that is actually written to the NAND Flash backing store. This makes it impossible for attackers to access the device's contents by removing the Flash chips. Naturally, for the encryption to be worthwhile, the password must also be set.

 

[StonyVision]

So if my motherboard does not support the ATA command set to support a disk password then a hadware encrypted SSD is basically no more secure then a common SSD?

 

[Pinhedd]

So if my motherboard does not support the ATA command set to support a disk password then a hadware encrypted SSD is basically no more secure then a common SSD?

If your motherboard was manufactured after 1986 it supports the ATA command set

 

[Sparktown]

So if my motherboard does not support the ATA command set to support a disk password then a hadware encrypted SSD is basically no more secure then a common SSD?

If your motherboard was manufactured after 1986 it supports the ATA command set

Yes, but I think many manufacturers intentionally disable ATA support. The supposed reason is that manufacturers would rather not risk customers forgetting the password, locking themselves out, then complaining about it. You would think any customer educated enough to buy his/her own motherboard would know the risks and the manufacturer could just put a warning prompt in the bios, but whatever...

I've heard rumors that you can sometimes get manufacturers to email you a patched version of the motherboard bios that re-enables ATA. Probably worth emailing the motherboard manufacturer before making a purchase.