HD Password

[KenP]

All of a sudden I started getting a Enter Password prompt when I booted my
Dell PC. This was obvioiusly because someone got into the system and set a
password. I thought the password was a administrator/system password so I
took the battery out and left it for awhile. It still came back to password
prompt. I removed the password jumper and replaced and was able to get into
SETUP. I went in and nulled out what I thought was a administrator/system
password, rebooted machine and got same password prompt. It appears the
password that was set is the HD password. I've tried to figure it out but
can't.

Does anyone have a clue as how to disable/change the HD password? It will
not boot to anything but the SETUP menu and since I do not know the HD
password, unlike administrator and system password, I can't change/reset it.

Thanks in advance.
KenP

 

[KenP]

Oops, forgot to tell you this is an Optiplex desktop PC.

 

[Jim]

All of a sudden I started getting a Enter Password prompt when I booted my
Dell PC. This was obvioiusly because someone got into the system and set a
password. I thought the password was a administrator/system password so I
took the battery out and left it for awhile. It still came back to
password
prompt. I removed the password jumper and replaced and was able to get
into
SETUP. I went in and nulled out what I thought was a administrator/system
password, rebooted machine and got same password prompt. It appears the
password that was set is the HD password. I've tried to figure it out but
can't.

Does anyone have a clue as how to disable/change the HD password? It will
not boot to anything but the SETUP menu and since I do not know the HD
password, unlike administrator and system password, I can't change/reset
it.

Thanks in advance.
KenP

Removing and replacing the battery only clears the BIOS password.
At what point in the boot does this message appear?
If it appears after XP has started, XP is asking for the password for the
administrator account.
The default value for the account is blank (that is, just press enter). If
you changed this password, only you know what it is.
Jim

 

[KenP]

It appears as soon as PC starts booting. Now welcome screen, no nothing. Just
black screen asking for password.

 

[Kevin Gray]

Pretty sure the only people that can get around the HDD password are Dell and
Data Recovery specialists.

 

[KenP]

Password jumper only has two pins. Removing, restarting PC, replacing and
restarting PC again does not help. I think tis removes security/administrator
password in BIOS.

 

[KenP]

I can enter setup and change boot sequence to CD, but it still comes up w/HD
password prompt. The Phoenix Bios has a security section where you can assign
system/administrator/Drive 0/Drive 1/Ddrive 2, etc. Initially I think the
prankster set the system/administer and HD 0 passwords. I was able to remove
battery and remove system & administrator but when booted it asked for HD 0
password. I even reset BIOS to default settings and it still asks for HD
password.

Go figure. Thanks and hopefully someone has a suggestion. Otherwise, I can't
even reformat and restore drive.

KenP

 

[KenP]

If I put the drive in another machine and turn on that drive, the system
comes up to Windows screen with sliding progress bar and just sits there. If
I make this drive the only drive in a working machine, the BIOS recognizes it
but it comes back to HD 0 not found. ?????????

 

[Kevin Gray]

Hi Ken,

The HDD password is stored on the hard drive, if you put the drive in
another machine it wont be accessible without the password and unlike
CMOS/BIOS passwords there aren't any jumpers to reset the password. If dell
cant offer any help it will be a case of contacting a data recovery company
like Kroll OnTrack who I know from experience will charge an arm and a leg to
get the data of the drive.


Cheers, Kevin

 

[Anteaus]

Unfortunately the only recovery from alost HD password is likely to be a
full reset of the drive, losing all data.

As I've pointed out before, this HD password facility is a damned dangerous
gimmick. On some models it's even possible to set an HD password from within
a preinstalled Windows utility, and the person doing so may not understand
what it is they are actually doing. Frequently they stumble-upon this utility
when trying to change their network password, and imagine that the password
can be reset by their IT guy if they forget it. Nooooo. Not so.