Password Protected HDD's

[montycv3]

hi,

 

i work in a school and we have about 20 laptop hdd's that have been password protected by our "genius" kids and we were wondering how you guys clear the password so they can be used as spares in the future.

 

thanks guys

[jamesreedersmith]

passworded as in encrypted or something else?

[montycv3]

no as in it is password protected so we can not use the laptop until it is cleared. any ideas??

[jamesreedersmith]

That sounds like a bios password then rather than a hard drive password?

[montycv3]

no its a HDD password, we just like to know if there is any software or method out there to clear the HDD pass. thanks but it is not a bios password.

[kili]

Laptop BIOS passwords can be difficult to clear as you cant get to the jumper on the motherboard to reset it. Depending on make and model it may require a trip back to the manufacture.

 

Try googling your make and model

[kili]

If it's a hard drive password at what point does this password requirement arrive does it appear as part of the GUI or prior to OS loading?

[timzim]

I know HP laptops have a HDD password option in their Security Manager, which is a front-end for the BIOS. If you haven't set this up yourself (i.e. password protected the settings) before releasing the laptops anyone can fiddle with it. You can only reset a lost password by answering three security questions, which you most likely never set up in the first place if you released non-BIOS protected laptops to pupils

[montycv3]

its an acer aspire 3690. it is prior to OS loading as the OS is stored on the HDD, is it not?

 

as soon as it clears the Acer "powering on" screen it demands the HDD password.

[round2it]

if it is a dell you can ring tech support and they will give you a master reset code

[difinity]

I've got round most BIOS passwords, apart from Sony. HDD passwords are tricky, they use a part of the drive that's not normally read. I have had one unlocked remotely over the net, it cost me less than a tenner.

[montycv3]

hi thanks everyone so far,

 

UPDATE: The HDD is a Hitachi Travelstar 5K160

[Hightower]

A quick Google search suggests you can contact Acer support who will help you unlock the HDD.

[gotenks1321]

Laptop BIOS passwords can be difficult to clear as you cant get to the jumper on the motherboard to reset it. Depending on make and model it may require a trip back to the manufacture.

 

Try googling your make and model

 

There's an old 'debug' code that used to work for that Wonder if it still works actually....*runs off to find an old laptop*

[difinity]

I used these people to unlock the hard drive i had.

 

HDD Unlock - Overview

[CESIL]

I cleared one of these recently by guesswork...since I knew the little s*d responsible was being malicious I tries all the swear words I could think of (a surprisingly long list I am ashamed to admit) and found it was "go forth and fornicate" or words to that effect

 

Apart from luck the only way I could find online was some hardware that does a brute force password hack...or companies that charge for doing it for you.

[kili]

its an acer aspire 3690. it is prior to OS loading as the OS is stored on the HDD, is it not?

 

as soon as it clears the Acer "powering on" screen it demands the HDD password.

 

That's a novelty an OS stored on a HD.

 

I'll leave you to it you obviously don't need my help.

[Hightower]

That's a novelty an OS stored on a HD.

 

I'll leave you to it you obviously don't need my help.

 

No need to be sharp. The OP clearly stated he needed to overcome a HDD password, and yet plenty of you all tried to tell him/her that it was a BIOS setup password he was having trouble with.

[kili]

No need to be sharp. The OP clearly stated he needed to overcome a HDD password, and yet plenty of you all tried to tell him/her that it was a BIOS setup password he was having trouble with.

 

And who made you his spokesperson? Stick to your own thread and stop interfering.

[Hightower]

And who made you his spokesperson? Stick to your own thread and stop interfering.

 

And there was me wondering why your rep bar was a nice little red square......

[kili]

And there was me wondering why your rep bar was a nice little red square......

 

Only two things I could say to that but why bother life's to short move on

[LosOjos]

Can we save the fight for superiority until after somebody has solved the problem?

 

OP: I've never come across this problem myself but if you're just looking to regain access to the HDD and aren't worried about retrieving anything from it, you could try popping it in to another machine and formatting it. It's a long shot but there doesn't seem like there's much to lose...

[Domino]

Had this issue myself with a Dell machine.

 

Only way I found round it was to ring their support - they asked for the service tag and that I could identify the address that it was registered to and they gave me an unlock code.

[steveg]

I think some of the passwords that can be applied to sata hdd's cannot be cleared. When they are setup you get the option to set a supervisor password and a user password (a lot like a lot of bios's) and certainly on the ones we setup you get a lot of warnings saying dont loose the password, it isn't recoverable! Obviously as it wasn't you that set these, you wont know either password.

 

You're best bet is to 'extract' the password from thechildren!

 

Steve

[mac_shinobi]

I think some of the passwords that can be applied to sata hdd's cannot be cleared. When they are setup you get the option to set a supervisor password and a user password (a lot like a lot of bios's) and certainly on the ones we setup you get a lot of warnings saying dont loose the password, it isn't recoverable! Obviously as it wasn't you that set these, you wont know either password.

 

You're best bet is to 'extract' the password from thechildren!

 

Steve

 

Call Parents in - Get Parents and Kid + Person from SMT in a meeting and that should make said kid(s) give up said passwords.

 

Short of that it will be a paid service as per above ref the likes of hddunlock dot com or other companies who do or offer a similar service