Hi,
That is likely a password, either a Power-on Password or a Hard Disk Password.
If you don't know the password, we cannot help with the recovery of it unfortunately. If this isn't your laptop, you should contact the owner. If you think you may have accidentally used the restore CD for your work computer, you should contact the local system administrator of your office.
Additionally, you can send the laptop to IBM or contact
this company and have them reset the password. They will do this for you as long as you have proof of ownership in the form of a sales receipt or other invoice.