hard Disk Password

[harry s]

I am working in the IT at a pritty large compeny
one of are laptops has been given a HD password ? no one knows it and the lap top will not boot with out it and you can't boot from disk or CD

My question is there a way to force it to boot from disk or cd ?

or is the only way to get it running again to take the Harddrive out and reinstall on a another machein as slave ?

[Beryllium9]

Even that might not work. Some laptop hard disks (like the IBM 2.5" drives) actually store the password in the drive's firmware, and lock the drive to the computer's IDE controller. You might have to replace the drive, although before you do, take it out and try the manufacturer's drive utilities to check it, then try formatting it in a different computer.

[the_JinX]

who has given the laptop a hdd passwd ??
can't you just ask him/her to remove it ?

The more info the better the help, brand and moddel of laptop etc.

There have been simmilar posts to this one, and they have gotten pretty ugly.. So please share some more information with us..

[UKnetSec]

Well you can force it to boot from whatever you like by using the BIOS settings, unless it is a BIOS password that is being using, in which case... well you cant, like the_JinX said, a bit more info would be nice

[harry s]

the laptop is a Acer TravelMate 529TXV with Dv rom the hard drive is a IBM Travelstar 20gig
the person that past the lap top with a pass is not known !!

very thankful for any coments that will save time and money and I also know what to do if it happens again

[black_death]

to be honest there is no way you can access the data, you can not use fdisk,formating,
or even putting the drive in a different computer the only thing you can do is contacting acer.
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[owensleftfoot]

Is it a HD password or a bios password? Never heard of pw protecting a hd at boot up. If its a bios password you can either try and reset the cmos by using a jumper setting or removing the cmos battery. The first option is better because you may have to leave the battery out for a while.

[Beryllium9]

IBM laptop hard disks have a firmware password. Get the IBM disk utilities from their website, and run them. That will tell you if the drive itself has the password enabled. If it does, you've either got to find out the password from whoever set it, or get a new drive.

[ruffo]

Actually any HD supporting all ATAPI features can have a password. RTFStandard

[cwk9]

I never knew hard drives had firmware passwords on them. I think he’s talking about a bios password. In witch case it’s just a matter of taking out the coin battery and waiting until it for gets the password. Even with a hd with a password shouldn’t you be able to boot to a disk or cd provided the boot order is correct?