Hard Disk password protected

[kumar6]

Hello everyone,

I had lended one of my laptop to a so called friend. We had few issues where he returned my laptop and left overseas. I recently try to log into the system and to my amazement it boots up with the Gateway logo and then asks for a password for the hard disk. when I enter some password, it says invalid and finally says it is locked.
Then it says no operating system.

I do not know what is the password. How can I get in? Is there something I can do?
When I bought it, I had few things, I believe he has the same on it.
It is a Gateway Solo 1150. 64 MB ram Runs on Windows Millenium. The bios is phoenix 4.0. Pray, let me know if you need any other information to solve this.

Thanks in advance.
Kumar

 

[prezd]

1. a)call your friend and ask him for the password.
b)and then ask him why the f$@^%#^ did he lock your laptop.

2. get the manual and search for "bios protection password" or resetting bios password.

3. search the net for generic passwords that might work on your laptop. ex: lukeskywalker , alfaromeo , etc.

 

[wolluf]

If its really a hard drive (rather than bios) password, there have been a number of other threads about this I've seen, none of which had a successful conclusion.

 

[edfair]

This may be a theft deterrent issue. On Dells, you end up with Dell support with proof of ownership, they issue you a one time hotfix password calculated on the date. I suspect that you might need to do the same with Gateway support.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.