Built-in HDD Password = (Asks for During Boot up)

[Guest]

Hello- I am running XP-1 proffessional and yesterday while working the hard
drive just shut down immeadiately. I rebooted ok and it happend twice more.

This morning i come to my computer and tried to boot but it went to an MSDOS
screen and gives the following message: Built-in HDD Password =

I cannot access because I don't know the password.

I have years of work on this drive and If I lose this information it could
mean the end of my Career. I am desperate for HELP! Please help!

 

[David H. Lipman]

Go to the hard disk manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic software
respective to your hard disk. After the test, you will know if the hard disk is bad or
not..

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm


--
Dave



| Hello- I am running XP-1 proffessional and yesterday while working the hard
| drive just shut down immeadiately. I rebooted ok and it happend twice more.
|
| This morning i come to my computer and tried to boot but it went to an MSDOS
| screen and gives the following message: Built-in HDD Password =
|
| I cannot access because I don't know the password.
|
| I have years of work on this drive and If I lose this information it could
| mean the end of my Career. I am desperate for HELP! Please help!

 

[charles kuchar]

If the data is so important where is your backup? If you want to check the
drive either put in another drive and install the system software and set
the original drive to slave and maybe you can see your data. Or you can set
the original drive to slave and use another computer to check for data on
the drive... charlie

 

[Guest]

Thanks but I cannot boot the computer in question up so, unable to download
any diagnostics.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunaley I backed up to the HD. I have a CD rom and it seems to be
operable. SO are you saying to input the XP CD? How do you set it to slave?

Thanks

 

[Sharon F]

Hello- I am running XP-1 proffessional and yesterday while working the hard
drive just shut down immeadiately. I rebooted ok and it happend twice more.

This morning i come to my computer and tried to boot but it went to an MSDOS
screen and gives the following message: Built-in HDD Password =

I cannot access because I don't know the password.

I have years of work on this drive and If I lose this information it could
mean the end of my Career. I am desperate for HELP! Please help!

HDD password is an option with some motherboards. Check for a setting in
BIOS. No idea how you would reset the password if you've never assigned
one. You could try clearing CMOS to see if that will clear an unwanted
password but may want to contact customer support before mucking around in
this configuration area.

 

[R. McCarty]

Do you have a Floppy Drive ?, if so is it in the Boot Sequence before
the Hard drive. If you can obtain or create a Windows 9X boot disk,
and include the Debug.Exe program - you can reset BIOS back to it's
default values. This is an emergency procedure, to be used as a LAST
RESORT. It will reset ALL settings to factory defaults, which should
turnoff the Hard Drive password option.

(If this is Desktop, you can also accomplish this by shorting a Jumper
on the motherboard to Reset the BIOS)

Boot to the 9x Boot Floppy.
Run Debug >Debug [Press Enter]
Cursor changes to - (the o is character O, not numeral Zero)
-o 70 2e [Press Enter]
-o 71 ff [Press Enter]
-q [Press Enter]

Power off PC - Then turn back on. BIOS should POST and then stop
to indicate that settings have changed and Press (DEL, F1, F2) to enter
BIOS and set options.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply, I have no Floppy, only DVD/CD rom.

Do you have a Floppy Drive ?, if so is it in the Boot Sequence before
the Hard drive. If you can obtain or create a Windows 9X boot disk,
and include the Debug.Exe program - you can reset BIOS back to it's
default values. This is an emergency procedure, to be used as a LAST
RESORT. It will reset ALL settings to factory defaults, which should
turnoff the Hard Drive password option.

(If this is Desktop, you can also accomplish this by shorting a Jumper
on the motherboard to Reset the BIOS)

Boot to the 9x Boot Floppy.
Run Debug >Debug [Press Enter]
Cursor changes to - (the o is character O, not numeral Zero)
-o 70 2e [Press Enter]
-o 71 ff [Press Enter]
-q [Press Enter]

Power off PC - Then turn back on. BIOS should POST and then stop
to indicate that settings have changed and Press (DEL, F1, F2) to enter
BIOS and set options.

Thanks but I cannot boot the computer in question up so, unable to
download
any diagnostics.

 

[CWatters]

Hello- I am running XP-1 proffessional and yesterday while working the hard
drive just shut down immeadiately. I rebooted ok and it happend twice more.

This morning i come to my computer and tried to boot but it went to an MSDOS
screen and gives the following message: Built-in HDD Password =

Don't panic. I could just be that the BIOS thinks there has been an attempt
to write to the boot sector or something similar.

If it's a Toshiba see this...
http://www.rooba.net/riposte/archives/000475.php

Don't take any action that might mess up your system before you identify the
real cause.

Try posting this message at comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage for more
comments.

Try Google "Built-in HDD Password".

 

[Guest]

OMG Mr Watters that website describes it perfectly. Its good to know that
I am not alone. However it doesn't solve my problem. Do you know of a way
to bypass this password prompt?

 

[Guest]

Your link for the message comments is not complete and doesnt work. Would
you mind reposting? Thanks

 

[CWatters]

HDD password is an option with some motherboards. Check for a setting in
BIOS. No idea how you would reset the password if you've never assigned
one. You could try clearing CMOS to see if that will clear an unwanted
password but may want to contact customer support before mucking around in
this configuration area.

I believe HDD passwords are stored on the drive not in the BIOS EEPROM.
Other people say that if they move the drive to another PC the problem
follows the drive.

 

[CWatters]

OMG Mr Watters that website describes it perfectly. Its good to know that
I am not alone. However it doesn't solve my problem. Do you know of a way
to bypass this password prompt?

Try asking Rod Speed on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage newsgroup. He
knows a lot about hard drives.

Some of the tools on this page sound like they might work but best contact
the author to see if they are likely to help..

http://www.xbox-scene.com/tools/tools.php?page=harddrive#newsitemEpFVukEFuZPOrQDznZ


Not sure if you can see the replies to this question. Scroll down. Replies
are at the bottom. There are a lot of conflicting views some of which are
wrong.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Q_20423260.html

Here are some selected highlights in case you can't....

1) One poster mentions that the HDD password is only checked on a cold boot.
They suggest booting from CD then putting the PC into standby. Then do a
warm boot. No idea if this works...

Quote:

Make sure the bios is not password protected, so only the drivelock is
active.
Start the laptop and when it prompts for a password just hit enter 3 times.
The laptop will now start from CD.
Boot to dos and unplug the powercable, wait until the system goes to standby
(15 minutes?)
After the system went to standby start the machine again and when u did it
right the machine returns imediatly to the screen where it was before it
went to standby.
At this point hit CTRL ALT DELETE and the machine is going to reboot to dos
or from harddisk without asking for a password!!!!
You now have full accees to the drive!

2) Another poster says..

These are the only companies I know that can actually recover data from ATA
locked HDs:
www.datarecoverybc.com
www.nortek.on.ca
www.vogon.co.uk
www.easydatarecovery.co.uk

3) Several people say that flashing or resetting the BIOS does _not_ work
because the password mechanisim is on the drive not in the BIOS EEPROM.

4) Several people hint that a special bit of hardware is required/used to
unlock drives when the password is unavailable.

 

[CWatters]

Try this page..
http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html

See under "Windows/DOS unlock"

 

[Yves Leclerc]

The HDD password must be stored in the CMOS/BIOS chips, since you can not
even boot the hard drive. How can it check for the password???

 

[Bob I]

Not necessarily, Compaq frequently put "BIOS" setting on the harddrive
instead of flash ram.

 

[Bill]

Sorry if you already got this. My newsgroups have been updated.
But please take it to a qualified Toshiba dealer and get it fixed.
If you are in Atlanta Roberts Computer only works on Toshiba
and certainly can fix it for you. You are not getting to the machine
set-up screen and I have no clue - I traded my last Toshiba.
Since it is new when you open the case your warranty is toast.
Bill
Atlanta

 

[NobodyMan]

Yves, Yves, Yves.........

There is no HDD password stored in BIOS. The only passwords stored in
BIOS are BIOS level passwords. There are usually only two options: a
startup password, and a second password that can be used to keep
people out of BIOS (sometimes referred to as a supervisor and/or setup
password). Neither of these have anything to do with the hard drive.

 

[Sharon F]

Yves, Yves, Yves.........

There is no HDD password stored in BIOS. The only passwords stored in
BIOS are BIOS level passwords. There are usually only two options: a
startup password, and a second password that can be used to keep
people out of BIOS (sometimes referred to as a supervisor and/or setup
password). Neither of these have anything to do with the hard drive.

I have a portable system with a HDD password that can be set in BIOS
(Motion 1400 with an Award BIOS). As CWatters pointed out the password is
actually stored on the hard drive but implementing the feature requires
accessing the BIOS setup screens. This setting is in addition to the more
familiar password settings that you've mentioned.

 

[NobodyMan]

I have a portable system with a HDD password that can be set in BIOS
(Motion 1400 with an Award BIOS). As CWatters pointed out the password is
actually stored on the hard drive but implementing the feature requires
accessing the BIOS setup screens. This setting is in addition to the more
familiar password settings that you've mentioned.

You proved my point - the password is not stored in BIOS. Thanks.