StewartKnight Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 I have a Dell, which died the other day (mup.sys), all I have to do to recover the HD (a western digital) is run chkdsk /r from the recovery console...... except....... One of the little "baby hens" has passworded the hard drive. Don't know who, don't know the password! Does anyone know how to reset the password, and how the little clucker did it in the 1st place?
ctbjs Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 HI Stewart is it the HD that has a password on it or the BIOS? Clear the jumpers in BIOS Is it the Administrator password that is missing? BartPe would easily resolve this.
StewartKnight Posted June 27, 2007 Author Posted June 27, 2007 Harddrive. Tried clearing the BIOS ( knew it wouldn't work, but what the hey! )
Ric_ Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 Some DELL machines have a seperate jumper to reset the password to that used to reset the BIOS... maybe examine the board a little more closely?
Firefly_Transport Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 Or you could have a had drive password like the Toshiba's do now. In which case your 'clucked'
acrobson Posted June 27, 2007 Posted June 27, 2007 We had a similar issue like a year or so ago, our LEA has a forensics team and they managed to crack it with there toys! I would imagine that you LEA would have one too, they usually come under the heading of ICT Security Officer of computer crime dept etc. All the best
starscream Posted June 28, 2007 Posted June 28, 2007 passworded hard drive as in windows password? If that is the case you could boot the machine with knoppix and it bypasses any windows security as long as the drive isn't encrypted.
Firefly_Transport Posted June 28, 2007 Posted June 28, 2007 the one I am on about is hard coded to the drive at BIOS POST - the OS hasn't even been referance at that point. However the code in not in the bios so a bios reset will not work - by design, it is to lock down confidential data. Moving the HDD moves the password.
starscream Posted June 28, 2007 Posted June 28, 2007 oh. I have never seen this before. Is it a new feature of hard drives? You could perhaps get an indentical hard drive without the password feature and transfer the electronics across? I heard it isn't THAT difficult to do. But I suppose then you're at a forensic level.
Firefly_Transport Posted July 2, 2007 Posted July 2, 2007 You would be asking for some many problems, and I was desiging the system I would code the HDD platter to the HDD BIOS so it wouldn't let you run the drive that way either.... But then I am nasty like that...........
NetworkGeezer Posted July 2, 2007 Posted July 2, 2007 One of the little "baby hens" has passworded the hard drive. Don't know who, don't know the password! Are you saying a someone managed encrypt the disk or you actually referring to a base unit as a ‘hard drive’? Sorry. Pet peeve
kearton Posted July 2, 2007 Posted July 2, 2007 http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9800
StewartKnight Posted July 2, 2007 Author Posted July 2, 2007 @Networkgeezer actually it is the harddrive.... you're not talking to a teacher now, and I didn't say encrypted, I said passworded Mr Perdantic! Having played with the HD (not base unit), it's the hard drive. Not the BIOS settings, but the whole HD I've removed the offending article (harddrive) and put it in another computer (base unit), and the harddrive still comes up as password protected!
PeterW Posted July 2, 2007 Posted July 2, 2007 Have you tried low level formatting it ? Zero fill etc?
bazuk Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 MY suggestion is to find another hard drive of same type as the one you need to get into, must be exactly the same, then carefully remove the control board on each hard drive and then swap them over, once this is done reassemble the drives and you should be able to access the info. This should work only if the second driver doesnt have a drive lock password on it. hope this helps baz uk
plexer Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 If you don't need any of the information on it would something that removes all partitions hidden and otherwise do the job? Unless the password is stored on a chip on the drive elctronics. If it is then you are stuffed. Ben
plexer Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 Just found this interesting article that explains it all: http://www.heise.de/ct/english/05/08/172/ Ben
plexer Posted July 4, 2007 Posted July 4, 2007 I also just deleted the other topic you posted with the same title as there was more info in this thread. Ben
maniac Posted November 6, 2007 Posted November 6, 2007 Sorry to dig up this old thread. Did anyone ever find a way round this, as we've got a machine which one of the b***dy kids has passworded the hard drive on. Data's not important, but we'd prefer not to have to buy a new drive if possible. My research indicates that it's virtually impossible to bypass/crack but thought I'd ask incase anyone has managed it. Cheers, Mike.
StewartKnight Posted November 6, 2007 Author Posted November 6, 2007 I had to fit a new hard drive in the end!
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