Re: Built-in HDD Password = (Asks for During Boot up)

From: CWatters (colin.watters_at_pandoraBOX.be)
Date: 01/28/05 

Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:35:34 GMT

"CRYING OUT LOUD" <CRYINGOUTLOUD@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B7FCBC5-78BD-4F1E-8EE1-CBAD80E5BF27@microsoft.com...
> OMG Mr Watters that website describes it perfectly. Its good to know
that
> I am not alone. However it doesn't solve my problem. Do you know of a
way
> to bypass this password prompt?

Try asking Rod Speed on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage newsgroup. He
knows a lot about hard drives.

Some of the tools on this page sound like they might work but best contact
the author to see if they are likely to help..

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tools/tools.php?page=harddrive#newsitemEpFVukEFuZPOrQDznZ

Not sure if you can see the replies to this question. Scroll down. Replies
are at the bottom. There are a lot of conflicting views some of which are
wrong.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20423260.html

Here are some selected highlights in case you can't....

1) One poster mentions that the HDD password is only checked on a cold boot.
They suggest booting from CD then putting the PC into standby. Then do a
warm boot. No idea if this works...

Quote:

Make sure the bios is not password protected, so only the drivelock is
active.
Start the laptop and when it prompts for a password just hit enter 3 times.
The laptop will now start from CD.
Boot to dos and unplug the powercable, wait until the system goes to standby
(15 minutes?)
After the system went to standby start the machine again and when u did it
right the machine returns imediatly to the screen where it was before it
went to standby.
At this point hit CTRL ALT DELETE and the machine is going to reboot to dos
or from harddisk without asking for a password!!!!
You now have full accees to the drive!

2) Another poster says..

These are the only companies I know that can actually recover data from ATA
locked HDs:
www.datarecoverybc.com
www.nortek.on.ca
www.vogon.co.uk
www.easydatarecovery.co.uk

3) Several people say that flashing or resetting the BIOS does _not_ work
because the password mechanisim is on the drive not in the BIOS EEPROM.

4) Several people hint that a special bit of hardware is required/used to
unlock drives when the password is unavailable.

Relevant Pages

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    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: Boot.ini question
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