The Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive comes with an optional security mode that you can use to locked the SSD from being accessed by someone without a password.
You can check out this tutorial at Seeking Tech to see how you can change, remove and recover your password for the X5.
It should be noted that this guide will be covering the following capacity versions of the X5:
- 500 GB Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive (Model Number: MU-PB500B)
- 1 TB Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive (Model Number: MU-PB1T0B)
- 2 TB Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive (Model Number: MU-PB2T0B)
Samsung Portable SSD Software
In order to setup, change and remove the password for your Samsung X5 Portable, you need to use the Samsung Portable SSD Software.
If the program is not already installed, then you can download the installation files from the official Samsung website with this link.
Make sure you are downloading the correct version as there are multiple iterations of the program available for different external Samsung storage drives as well as operating systems.
How to change password for Samsung X5
To change the password for your Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive, you need to take the following steps:
1. Plug your X5 into the Thunderbolt 3 USB Type-C port on your computer.
2. The Samsung Portable SSD Software should automatically open. If you don’t see the program pop up, you can manually open it.
3. On the password screen, you need to enter the current password you previously set for your Samsung X5. Afterwards, you need to click Unlock.
4. You should now be in the main menu of the Samsung Portable SSD Software with your X5 fully unlocked. Here, you need to click Settings.
5. In the Settings screen, you will need to reinput your current password in addition to inputting your new password twice.
Make sure you write down your password and keep it in a safe space. This is because Samsung is not liable when it comes to you losing data stored on the X5 as a result of you forgetting the password.
6. Once you are done, you click on Save to confirm the password change.
How to remove password protection for Samsung X5
In order to remove password protection for your Samsung X5 Portable SSD, you need to disable its security mode.
To do so, you need to do the following:
1. Connect your external drive to your computer.
2. If the Samsung Portable SSD Software doesn’t open right away, make sure you manually launch the program.
3. In the password screen of the Samsung Portable SSD Software, enter the current password for your X5 and then click on the Unlock option.
This will bring you to the main menu of the program with your X5 fully unlocked.
4. From the main menu, click on Settings.
5. In the Settings screen, you should see Security Mode. If this setting is set to ON, make sure you click the switch to the right of it in order to set it to off.
With the security mode disabled, you no longer need a password in order to fully accessed your Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive every time you connect it to a computer.
How to recover password for Samsung X5
Unfortunately, there is no way you can recover the password for your Samsung X5 if you don’t remember what you previously used.
Without the correct password, only around 128 MB of your external solid state drive, which is allocated for the Samsung Portable SSD Software, will be shown. All of your personal data you have on your X5 will be locked out without a password.
If you don’t mind losing all of your personal data stored on the X5, then you can do a factory reset. This procedure will restore your external solid state drive to its original factory settings, which will erase the current password of the X5 as well as all personal data you have on it.
In order to factory reset your Samsung X5 Portable Solid State Drive, you need to do so through an online service from a Samsung Service Center.