Any way to remove a hard drive password?

[duritz]

I have a Seagate Momentus 100GB hdd I was given but I am unable to use it because it prompts for a password whenever I try to boot to it. I tried hooking it up to a USB enclosure but it will not show up in my computer. It does show up in disk management but it won't let me modify anything or format it.

What do I need to do to get this to work? Is there a program I can use to wipe it so I can reinstall windows?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[known12345]

Why exactly does it prompt for a password whenever you try to boot to it, did you set one yourself earlier? Try going into the BIOS and seeing if there is some option to "reset passwords" ive sceen it on some BIOS for some comps and not for others, maybe yours will have the option?

 

[duritz]

well in the bios of some machines you can actually put a password on your hard drive so if the machine is stolen then no one can get your personal files

i tried a blank password and that didn't work nor was there any way in bios to reset the password.

this hard drive came from a machine that belonged to someone who quit the company and he did not give us the password. they think he did it on purpose so that we could not see what he was doing on his laptop

the hard drive was given to me to see if i could remove the password so we could see the files and if i cannot, to see if i can wipe it so we can reuse the hard drive

can anyone help with this?

 

[Yellowbeard]

You should be able to simply format it in DOS. Try a Windows 98 boot disk and Fdisk it.

 

[Pardus]

Is it a BIOS or Windows password? For windows, boot to safe mode, login as Administrator and no password, should work.

 

[imported_Champ]

Originally posted by: ActiveX
For windows, boot to safe mode, login as Administrator and no password, should work.

thats only if it is xp i think...i know it doesnt work on vista and not sure about NT or 2000

If you need to see whats inside of it im sure there are some questionable programs somewhere that would let you in. But if you dont just boot into dos and format it

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: duritz
the hard drive was given to me to see if i could remove the password so we could see the files and if i cannot, to see if i can wipe it so we can reuse the hard drive

The drive is ATA security password locked. If you contact Seagate, they *might* tell you how to initiate the SECURITY ERASE procedure without a password, if it is even supported. As the terms suggest, the entire contents of the disk will be wiped clean before the drive can be unlocked. If it is supported, it almost certainly will require that the drive be connected to the same disk controller, perhaps even the same machine, that was used to set the password.

Or you could borrow one of these, if you know someone in law enforcement.

Otherwise, if neither the data nor the drive are all that important, you might as well just toss it (or destroy it).

 

[duritz]

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard
You should be able to simply format it in DOS. Try a Windows 98 boot disk and Fdisk it.

if the hard drive is hooked up to the computer on boot it asks for a password and if you do not enter the correct one, the hard drive does not spin up.

connecting it to a usb enclosure shows the hard drive installed and it even shows in disk management but does not show the storage size or even that it has any space since it's password protected

 

[duritz]

Originally posted by: ActiveX
Is it a BIOS or Windows password? For windows, boot to safe mode, login as Administrator and no password, should work.

this isn't an OS issue.... it's a password located on the hard drive itself

for those having a hard time understanding this IBM explains it pretty well here:

Hard drive
The hard drive is controlled by the Hard Drive Password. After the Power On Password is entered, the person at the keyboard must be able to enter the Hard Drive Password, otherwise the disk drive will not spin up for use. Like the Power On Password, the Hard Drive Password is set in the BIOS configuration screen.

here is an article on ibm's website about setting/removing/changing a hard drive password to better explain what it is for. however removing it requires you to know the original password.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/YAST-3JXNTY.html

 

[duritz]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: duritz
the hard drive was given to me to see if i could remove the password so we could see the files and if i cannot, to see if i can wipe it so we can reuse the hard drive

The drive is ATA security password locked. If you contact Seagate, they *might* tell you how to initiate the SECURITY ERASE procedure without a password, if it is even supported. As the terms suggest, the entire contents of the disk will be wiped clean before the drive can be unlocked. If it is supported, it almost certainly will require that the drive be connected to the same disk controller, perhaps even the same machine, that was used to set the password.

Or you could borrow one of these, if you know someone in law enforcement.

Otherwise, if neither the data nor the drive are all that important, you might as well just toss it (or destroy it).

yea i do not know anyone in law enforcement. i'm sure there has to be a program out there to allow me to reuse the drive. it's a 100GB Sata drive out of a T61p notebook and not something i'd readily toss out without giving it a few more tries.

 

[RebateMonger]

If you are being paid to do this, accessing that drive is going to cost a lot more than just buying a new $100 hard drive and hitting the old one with a sledge hammer.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: duritz
yea i do not know anyone in law enforcement. i'm sure there has to be a program out there to allow me to reuse the drive.

There isn't, except perhaps for some very narrow application to some specific models discovered to have a flaw that can be exploited. Might as well pick up some lotto tickets while you're at it. Better odds.

 

[Onceler]

short the cmos as long as you didn't use all your attempts and the hd is now hard loced then it should clear the password

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Onceler
short the cmos as long as you didn't use all your attempts and the hd is now hard loced then it should clear the password

No.

 

[Onceler]

I have a Seagate Momentus 100GB SATA 7200RPM HD that is locked and I don't know the password trouble is I didn't short the cmos,I kept guessing at the password untill it hard locked the drive now it is on the drive itself so I better remember the password or hire a service.
If any one knows of an alternative thats free please let me know as money is tight.

 

[Aeridyne]

Only thing that I ever did once was to defeat the bios pass on an Inspiron 1100 (I think that's what it was, it was an inspiron anyway) there was a chip on the board, don't remember exactly what the numbers on it were, but there were eight pins, had to short them a certain way, but the guide i found didn't work, so I just shorted all possible combinations. I thought I had nuked the board but after a few more tries of what was supposed to be the right pin combination it came back to life and worked good ever since, clearing the password. I also had another more updated dell inspiron w/ a bios pass that did not have that chip on it so i couldn't figure it out, I called dell and after a hell of a lot of whining and story telling the guy did it for me even though i had no way to prove ownership.

So yeah, I highly doubt they use that little texas instruments 8 pin chip anymore, you'd be best to try seagate and attempt to prove you own it or IBM. Otherwise unless you can find a pinout for that chip and which one it is, no dice pal. chances of finding software are about nil, I never found any and I searched for days.

 

[Blain]

Laptop HDs store the password on the drive itself.
Hacking a BIOS password won't do it, neither will trying some Windows password hack.

The drive manufacturer or laptop OEM can get you around the password.
Your job will be convincing them that you need to do this for a legitimate purpose.

Or try A.FF Repair Station

 

[Onceler]

the way my laptop works is that the password is stored in the bios as long as the password is not guessed wrong three times it won't hard lock(you can still recover the drive by shorting the CMOS) but if you miss the fourth time it hard locks and puts the password protect on the hard drive itself meaning you can't unlock it without the password

 

[Modelworks]

Give MHDD a go.
http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

Has worked for me in the past.
It can access very low level things on a hard drive. Make sure you read instructions carefully as this software works at the firmware level with the drive.

Some tips:

A disk always has two passwords: A User password and a Master password. Most disks support a Master Password Revision Code, which can tell you if the Master password has been changed, or it it still the factory default. The revision code is word 92 in the IDENTIFY response. A value of 0xFFFE means the Master password is unchanged.

A disk can be locked in two modes: High security mode or Maximum security mode. Bit 8 in word 128 of the IDENTIFY response tell you which mode your disk is in: 0 = High, 1 = Maximum.

In High security mode, you can unlock the disk with either the user or master password, using the "SECURITY UNLOCK DEVICE" ATA command. There is an attempt limit, normally set to 5, after which you must power cycle or hard-reset the disk before you can attempt again.

In Maximum security mode, you cannot unlock the disk! The only way to get the disk back to a usable state is to issue the SECURITY ERASE PREPARE command, immediately followed by SECURITY ERASE UNIT. The SECURITY ERASE UNIT command requires the Master password and will completely erase all data on the disk. The operation is rather slow, expect half an hour or more for big disks. (Word 89 in the IDENTIFY response indicates how long the operation will take.)

In my experience the master password is almost never changed from factory default.

 

[Onceler]

http://www.hddunlock.com/
It will unlock your drive but erase everything on it I think it wipes it.
I need my data. I tried repair station they do not support this drive I tried it and they refunded my money.