Patent ID: 7779220

Claim:
A method comprising: by a cartridge carrier configured to accept a removable media cartridge, the removable media cartridge comprising a hard disk drive housed within a cartridge shell: accessing a serial number string and a model number string of the hard disk drive, wherein the serial number string and the model number string each comprise a plurality of characters; selectively modifying one or both of the serial number string and the model number string to produce a modified serial number string and a modified model number string; interleaving the modified serial number string and the modified model number string to form an intermediate string; hashing the intermediate string to form an authentication password; storing the authentication password within the hard disk drive on computer-readable storage media; and determining if the hard disk drive is in a locked state; and if the hard disk drive is in the locked state: sending an incorrect password to the hard disk drive; rejecting the removable media cartridge if the hard disk drive unlocks in response to receipt of the incorrect password by the hard disk drive; sending the authentication password to the hard disk drive; and rejecting the removable media cartridge if the hard disk drive does not unlock in response to receipt of the authentication password by the hard disk drive.