How do you Bypass a password protected IBM laptop hard drive?

[topmade]

As stated: How do you Bypass a password protected IBM laptop hard drive?

I've searched the web and found a answer for a Dell laptop, but none for a IBM laptop. And I am not interested in purchasing any software or send the hard drive to some company. If all else fails the hard drive is going to be replaced.

[Nova316]

reformat it?

[topmade]

Originally posted by Nova316
reformat it?

Can't do that, won't even let you get into the bios to do anything. It's almost treated like a BIOS password, but is on the physical hard drive

[soupey]

do u mean that the partition is locked or that its somehow password protected?

[topmade]

Originally posted by soupey
do u mean that the partition is locked or that its somehow password protected?

The hard drive is password protected. PC's will not have this, it is only on laptops. When starting up it will immediately display the IBM logo screen and display a cylinder to represent the hard drive and a '?'
You cannot even get into the BIOS if you don't know what the password is.

I've tried everything I can think of and searched high and low for this is and also found this on our IBM website:

"Forgotten Hard drive password. If the user's Hard drive password has been set, check whether a master Hard drive password has been set. If it has, it can be used for access to the hard drive. If no master Hard drive password is available, or the administrator forgets the master Hard drive password, then the hard drive must be replaced. This replacement process is not covered under warranty."

It's a long shot to see if someone know's how to do this but what the hell, you never know?

[Weapon_R]

Ever tried removing the bios battery and resetting it?

[topmade]

Originally posted by Weapon_R
Ever tried removing the bios battery and resetting it?

That would probably work for a PC, but this is a laptop hard drive. You can put this hard drive in any other laptop and it will prompt for a hard drive password. Pulling the battery will not work

[forced14]

From the sounds of things, this is a startup password and has nothing to do with the actual hard drive. Its still configured through the BIOS.

How about booting from a knoppix disc. Does it allow you to boot to CD at all? If you can boot to a knoppix CD, you can mount the hard drive, take the files you need, and then format the drive.

--forced

[topmade]

Originally posted by forced14
From the sounds of things, this is a startup password and has nothing to do with the actual hard drive. Its still configured through the BIOS.

How about booting from a knoppix disc. Does it allow you to boot to CD at all? If you can boot to a knoppix CD, you can mount the hard drive, take the files you need, and then format the drive.

--forced

This is a actual laptop hard drive password, not a BIOS or startup password. PC's don't have this, but Laptops do. The password is on the physical hard drive, you can put this hard drive in any other laptop and the first thing that will happen is it will prompt for a hd password. If you can't crack this password you cannot access anything including a command prompt, disc drives or the bios

[chinese-G35-guy]

Originally posted by topmade
As stated: How do you Bypass a password protected IBM laptop hard drive?

I've searched the web and found a answer for a Dell laptop, but none for a IBM laptop. And I am not interested in purchasing any software or send the hard drive to some company. If all else fails the hard drive is going to be replaced.

the best way is prob return it to its owner...

[soupey]

looks like ur screwed
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-623...sageID=1936716

[googe]

the hard drive lock is written to the firmware of the hard drive. it can be recovered but it takes hardware hacking. also, you wont be able to reformat it or anything with that password set. your options are to either send it away, or get an eeprom reader and take it apart.

why dont you have the password?

[topmade]

Originally posted by googe
the hard drive lock is written to the firmware of the hard drive. it can be recovered but it takes hardware hacking. also, you wont be able to reformat it or anything with that password set. your options are to either send it away, or get an eeprom reader and take it apart.

why dont you have the password?

That is the unfortunate answer I was looking for. Laptop belonged to a terminated employee and I swear the guy did this on purpose to piss us off. We'll most likely just use a used hard drive.

But I heard somewhere that there is a trick that can be done with 1 pin to clear the password?? Probably not true but could anyone comment on this??

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by topmade


That is the unfortunate answer I was looking for. Laptop belonged to a terminated employee and I swear the guy did this on purpose to piss us off. We'll most likely just use a used hard drive.

But I heard somewhere that there is a trick that can be done with 1 pin to clear the password?? Probably not true but could anyone comment on this??

This is IBM specific, call IBM for help. But I doubt they have a solution for you other than buying a replacement drive. And it's probably cheaper than spending countless hours on solving it.

[Cword]

If the password is laptop specific the get an adapter and install the drive in a desktop as a slave.

[soupey]

looked some more and foudn this, maybe it'll help

http://www.plasma-online.de/index.ht...sword_ibm.html

[benyl]

Originally posted by topmade


That is the unfortunate answer I was looking for. Laptop belonged to a terminated employee and I swear the guy did this on purpose to piss us off. We'll most likely just use a used hard drive.

But I heard somewhere that there is a trick that can be done with 1 pin to clear the password?? Probably not true but could anyone comment on this??

Maybe you should call the terminated employee and ask him what the password is. Even if he was terminated, he could be a nice guy.

[eblend]

sorry for not being of any use, but i am glad that IBM has this protection, i have it set on my laptop as well as like you metioned it is indeed hardware related and all those meathods people have suggested will not work, needs some firmware hacking to make it work, but i have no clue how

[andres_mt]

Originally posted by topmade
As stated: How do you Bypass a password protected IBM laptop hard drive?

I've searched the web and found a answer for a Dell laptop, but none for a IBM laptop. And I am not interested in purchasing any software or send the hard drive to some company. If all else fails the hard drive is going to be replaced.

Just curious to know. How much would it be to replace a hard-drive for a laptop???

[Toms-SC]

Originally posted by andres_mt


Just curious to know. How much would it be to replace a hard-drive for a laptop???

$80+ for New units