Question Hardware encryption

[ryanxuk]

My PC had a Samsung PM951 NVMe m.2 hard drive which apparently has "internal hardware encryption" that is always on according to the Samsung website.
It was recently stolen and all that it had on was a Windows 10 password.
Does this mean the hard drive is not encrypted and the thief could access all the data? should I have done something else to enable the hardware encryption?

 

[lvt]

Windows 10 doesn't encrypt the hard drive automatically.

The presence of an icon (padlock?) when you see the drive in Windows Explorer is a proof that your drive is encrypted, otherwise you only can hope that it was encrypted.

 

[fzabkar]

All the thief would need to do to bypass your Win 10 password (assuming that Bitlocker was not activated) would be to attach your drive to another working machine. I would proceed on the assumption that your security has been compromised.