hdd password for dell lappy?

rykoryko new york
edited March 2005 in Hardware
I friend of mine bought a second hand dell laptop (pIII 700mhz, 128mb, 10gb).

The problem is that upon booting it requires a hdd password. It POSTs fine and i can get into the BIOS, but not much can be done from there. If i had the original password, i could change/remove it from the BIOS, but i don't have the password. The person who sold the laptop is AWOL, and my friend has no idea as to the password.

Another problem is that the laptop was purchased w/o the docking station and therefore there is no cd-rom or floppy.

So my question is what can i do to get around this hdd password. If i yank the hdd and use my laptop-->regular ide adapter, then reformat/re-install windows...................will this work? What about doing a BIOS update with an external USB floppy? I have heard these can be problematic........would it even remove the hdd password protection? What about some sort of linux network boot? But from there what could i do? Thanks everyone!
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Comments

  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited April 2004
    If you can get at the cmos battery unplug it, and also unplug any regular batteries, AC cords, etc. Leave everything unplugged for at least an hour. That should clear the bios and get you back in business.

    If it turns out to be on the HD itself doing what you said would do it.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    ryko wrote:
    I friend of mine bought a second hand dell laptop (pIII 700mhz, 128mb, 10gb).

    The problem is that upon booting it requires a hdd password. It POSTs fine and i can get into the BIOS, but not much can be done from there. If i had the original password, i could change/remove it from the BIOS, but i don't have the password. The person who sold the laptop is AWOL, and my friend has no idea as to the password.

    Another problem is that the laptop was purchased w/o the docking station and therefore there is no cd-rom or floppy.

    So my question is what can i do to get around this hdd password. If i yank the hdd and use my laptop-->regular ide adapter, then reformat/re-install windows...................will this work? What about doing a BIOS update with an external USB floppy? I have heard these can be problematic........would it even remove the hdd password protection? What about some sort of linux network boot? But from there what could i do? Thanks everyone!


    What model Dell laptop??? Some of those were network adminable and some DID have password plus encryption for HD data that were sold to companies and gov't folks. THOSE had multiple batteries, main battery and at least two backups as smaller cells.

    Reloading Windows of XP type on yours will not work unless you have almost EXACT same hardware. I think, under the circumstances, you might suggest to your firend that he make dang sure the thing did not fall out of a truck....

    THAT particular kind of laptop situational thing might be DANGEROUS to surf with, among other things-- it might "call home," or to a laptop theft recovery company when you surfed with it.... :( Note that Dell can tell you by serial number and model number who owns it if it is that kind of rig, might also be a reward for its return-- given that the person who sold it went immediately AWOL fromn scene, I wonder about this BIG TIME. They can also tell you where the batteries are if it is not that kind of secure-rigged laptop. Friends don't let friends get BURNED in this case, true, but I would validate the sale with Dell before I worked on it, myself.

    John D.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    It is a dell inspiron 2100, and as for the legitimacy of the purchase i really don't know. It was a garage sale special, but it seems legit----no scratched off serial numbers or anything like that.

    My friend has been in touch with dell support and has explained the situation to them. They have told him that it is a home-user pc, not a governmnet, educational, or business notebook. So i don't have to worry about extra protection. However, they apparently couldn't help him solve the hdd password protection issue. Whether it was a liability issue with them not giving out previous customer info, or something else i don't know. They didn't demand the notebook back or anything like that, but they were of no apparent use either. It makes me wonder..........

    I think i am going to contact dell tommorrow on my own, without my friend around, and see what i can find out about this mystery laptop.

    For now, i am going to hook it up as a slave to my spare pc and see what i can find.....will let you know what i see......
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    After talking to dell on the phone, they have informed me that they cannot help remove the hdd password protection. The notebook is still registered to the original owner, who has not transferred ownership or reported it stolen. Until this person transfers ownership to my friend, dell refuses to help.

    Anyway, i hooked it up as a slave in my spare rig and there is nothing on it---no os or anything else. So now i am re-installing winxp and we will see what happens....i have a lingering feeling that the hdd password will still be there....just have to wait and see.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Alright, i am officially annoyed.............i couldn't load xp on this thng at all or do anything else. When i had it hooked up as a slave, it just looked like an unmounted volume, but i couldn't format through the 'disk management' thing. I also tried 2 different machines with it a master, but everytime winxp starts to install it gets to where you can format your hdd, but says this disk cannot be accessed. So the hdd protection is ON the hdd and not in the BIOS or anywhere else.

    What can i do? I don't want to purchase another hdd. There has got to be some linux trick that will work. Linux experts out there.......what can i do?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    You can try downloading the manufacturer's drive tool (is it a toshiba drive? IBM? Fujitsu?) and doing a low-level format... That zeroes the drive to factory spec. It might remove the HDD password...
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    It's an IBM travelstar 10.4gb 4200rpm screamer.........i am checking their website now..................thanks for the tip. I am at work right now, but will let you know what happens when i get home.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Yeah, what you need can be found at HGST.COM - Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.... It's called the DFT (Drive Fitness Tool) and it will allow you to factory refresh the drive.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Ok, i got it......thanks, prime....now just to sneak out of work early..................
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Well, this totally blows.............i have run the DFT from hitachi, but after doing both the quick and advanced test, i get this error message:

    test results

    device not found
    disposition code = 0x20 (i looked this up and it says device not connected correctly)

    Another strange thing is that it reports the capacity of the hdd as 0.00mb, the cache as 10142kb, and the serial number as N483S 48. So if the device is reported as 'not found' why does it find a serial number and cache?

    Btw, the hdd is hoooked up correctly, i feel it spin up so i know it is working. I even tried hooking up the hdd with my 2.5--->3.5 adapter on backwards to see if i screwed up somehow, but it gives me the same results: 0x20 device not found. I know the adapter is good b/c it works with my other 2.5" hdd no problems.

    So do i have any other options? I have tried everything i can think of from a DOS format, a windows re-install format, hitachi's DFT, different pc's, etc....none of which work at all. Everything i get is something like no hdd present, or device not found.

    Any suggestions?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Maybe it's time to just get a new drive :-/ sorry, I'm tapped out.. The only thing left I can think of is that the DFT doesn't work with a few very specific drives, such as the TravelStar E and the MicroDrives. Is it a TS-E?
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Nope, it's not a travelstar-e. I bet if i sent it to the SMx project, they could get it to work.....

    Unfortunately i have a bigger problem with this stinkin' laptop, and i can't even believe it.....i am so pissed :mean::rarr: :banghead:

    I took the whole laptop apart (again) last night and i left it on the kitchen table while i took the dogs outside for their evening work-out. Anyway, my cat (lola the destroyer) decide to attack the poor lappy. There was a coiled up, flat, copper-looking cable between the lcd and the mobo that she destroyed. I have attached a pic.... :zombie::sawed:

    Where/ how can i replace this thing? I can't send it back to dell b/c it's not mine......i don't want to give it back to my friend until i fix at least this problem.....man this sucks :grumble: :shakehead :wtf:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    That's probably the VGA cable... Oh boy... I don't know how easy it would be to replace. Maybe you can ask Morpheus[XxX] since he works for Dell tech support.... :(
  • Roland-MathieuxRoland-Mathieux
    edited April 2004
    ryko wrote:
    I friend of mine bought a second hand dell laptop (pIII 700mhz, 128mb, 10gb).

    The problem is that upon booting it requires a hdd password. It POSTs fine and i can get into the BIOS, but not much can be done from there. If i had the original password, i could change/remove it from the BIOS, but i don't have the password. The person who sold the laptop is AWOL, and my friend has no idea as to the password.

    Another problem is that the laptop was purchased w/o the docking station and therefore there is no cd-rom or floppy.

    So my question is what can i do to get around this hdd password. If i yank the hdd and use my laptop-->regular ide adapter, then reformat/re-install windows...................will this work? What about doing a BIOS update with an external USB floppy? I have heard these can be problematic........would it even remove the hdd password protection? What about some sort of linux network boot? But from there what could i do? Thanks everyone!
  • Roland-MathieuxRoland-Mathieux
    edited April 2004
    HI
    Have you found the solution for your problem (HDD password), because i have the same with a 2,5" Fujitsu ?

    Roland
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Unforunately the short answer is NO.....however, i haven't given up total hope yet. I am currently downloading knoppix and a couple of other free linux distros to see if i can use one of them to format my hdd.
  • maggie99635maggie99635 Alaska
    edited April 2004
    I've had this link. I'm not sure it would help. It is worth a look. I've never needed it so I haven't used it.
    http://qasimtoep.tripod.com/dell/dell.html
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Wow... That looks like it might be it, Maggie... Thanks for the link!

    I hope it works out, Ryko.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited April 2004
    Remember that drives can actually have passwords set into their firmware, as well as dodgy things DELL may do aswell. If you boot up Knoppix and run hdparm on the drive in info mode, it will tell you if the password is set or not. This basically tells you whether it is actually a standard drive password, or some other wierd thing DELL have done themselves.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    Originally posted by maggie99635
    I've had this link. I'm not sure it would help. It is worth a look. I've never needed it so I haven't used it.
    http://qasimtoep.tripod.com/dell/dell.html

    OMG! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I will be attempting the procedure later this evening, but it sounds like it will work. Thank you so much! :thumbsup:
  • maggie99635maggie99635 Alaska
    edited April 2004
    I hope it works! I noticed you aren't afraid to tear into the machine. :) That is what it takes.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited April 2004
    F**K....i didn't read far enough...here's a quote form the aforementioned link...
    * NOTE:
    There are a few things that should be addressed before you continue...
    I will list them quickly here.
    Some of these laptops may have an additional password called a "Hard Drive Password."
    This may not even become evident until the other passwords have been cleared. This password is stored on the hard drive, it does not mean that the laptop can not be used; it just means that the hard drive can not be accessed.
    If you are not able to find out what the Hard Drive Password is, you can simply replace it with another Hard Drive, and then reinstall windows. (I'm assuming you choose windows; linux, solaris, or DOS are fine too.)
    Also: I do not know how to bypass, circumvent, or clear the hard drive password. If I find out sometime later I will post it to this site.

    :sad2: ...back to the knoppix idea...
  • truhliqtruhliq Slovakia, Germany
    edited June 2004
    Hello Ryko....

    I worked in Siemens Germany. It was internship for 6 moths.. I had a laptop which i could use pivately. So, i just switched harddrives and installed my system and programs which i wanted ( and couldnt install on the FIRM drive :)) )

    But , now i am back from germany in Slovakia.. and I wanted to use the drive in another laptop.. BUT :) it is now password protected. So siemens laptop has set the password and i didnt know :) Even siemens admin does not know this password and it seems that someone set in once for all their laptops..
    So it sucks :) And I am in the situation like you...

    What I have now... there are now two HDDs. which i have 2GB and 30GB both i used shortly in this laptop...

    I downloaded.. IBM tool, this tool tells me exactly Error 0x20 HDD protected. There is even "Hard Drive info" button in this tool, and it says that password features are supported, and password is set....
    There is feature in this program DELETE MBR, and DELETE HDD (low level) but it says it works only with IBM drives....

    So i downloaded ERASE tool from fujitsu siemens.. And it was the first tool which actually wanted to work with the drive. I formatted the drive..
    It said: "Format done succesfully ,you can now high level format... "

    BUT :( the password is still there...

    So i think it is written in some special part of the drive which cannot be accessed even by low level tool....

    I was thinking if is could be placed electronics., So I disconected the board of drive from actual drive..
    I connected only electronic part ( IDE 2,5 to 3,5 ) now it said, password is not set...

    So it is definitely written in HDD, and not in some chip....

    Maybe you could ask directly in IBM, if there is anything what can be done..
    I want to ask in Fujitsu-siemens. ....

    When i connect the drive to computer i can see it as "wrong initialized partition" ( but i.e. i had 3 partitions and it sees only one that is bad.. "
    i cannot delete it, i cannot make a new one..."

    FDISK says , disc inaccesible
    :(
  • rykoryko new york
    edited June 2004
    Yeah, there isn't much you can do...i just pulled out the old credit card and got a 20gb 5400rpm hdd ($82 newegg). I had to format and install windows on a different machine (which also was a dell) and it now works. I also had to replace the vga cable ($15 ebay), but the lappy is in working order now.

    I hate having this 10gb hdd sitting around collecting dust, though. I bought a 2.5" usb2.0 external enclosure to see if i could get it to work, but no luck there either. It shows up as a partition, but it is in some scrambled language with wierd symbols. In winXP, the drive isn't available at all. I have tried everything I can think of, but it is time to get on with my life and more useful things....chalk this one up in the loss column i guess.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited June 2004
    Are you farmilliar with xbox modding?

    Teh reason I ask is because all xbox hard drives are password locked. If you have a friend with an xbox mod chip you might be able to unlock the drive from an xbox. The name of the app to do this is called Config magic, and it runs on the xbox.

    Now I have no clue how to get a standard IDE cable to hook into a lappy drive, nor any idea if this would work. I kind of doubt it. But depends how desperate you are to get it working.

    I have had problems with password protected hard drives before from being locked by xboxen, and my solution was to go buy a new identicle hard drive from best buy and return the locked one (along with ALL my precious data). Sure it sounds wrong... but I am betting that Maxtor has some hidden util they can use to unlock teh drive a lot easier than I can.

    Maybe you can work up a simalar scheme ;)

    Have you tried disk management in XP? what does that display the drives status as?
  • AmbushAmbush
    edited June 2004
    ConfigMagic won't work with the laptop drive. ConfigMagic will only reconize the drive if it is formated for an xbox and they use an estimated hdd password based off of the xbox eeprom. So unless the drive was locked while in an xbox it won't be of much use.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited June 2004
    Since you now have another drive in the lappy and the old drive is just a paperweight until you can figure out how to unlock it, I have 1 other idea that might just work, ryko. Do you have access to something with a really strong magnetic field maybe? If you subject that drive to a strong enough magnetic field, it should erase anything organized in that hard drive like a password and then maybe you could do a low level format on it.

    I don't know if this would work, but I think it would be worth a try. :Rocker:
  • mysticmystic
    edited September 2004
    I am having the same problem with a compaq presario 5420 US, I did the test and got;
    Device not found: disposition 0x20, after talking with a obline tech I was informed I would have to get a new hard drive, this is an ATA maxtor 4D080H4.
    Mark
  • Access_DeniedAccess_Denied tennessee
    edited October 2004
    this should do the trick
    <<link removed>>
This discussion has been closed.