Patent ID: 8230190

Claim:
A device comprising: a data storage device including the following elements that are non-removable from the data storage device: a data storage interface configured to couple the data storage device to a host computer system to allow the data storage device to be removable from the host computer system, the data storage interface also configured to receive commands to store data to and retrieve data from the data storage device; a data storage medium to store data from the host computer system; a non-volatile memory which stores security state information; a controller operably coupled to the memory; and the data storage device also including security software stored within the data storage device on the data storage medium or the non-volatile memory, wherein the security software is executable by the controller and implemented independent of a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the host computer system and the security software is programmed to execute a security software interface, via the host computer system but independent of the BIOS, that allows the input of a password, compare the password with the security state information, and determine whether to deny the host computer system access to the data storage medium based on the comparison.