Primary master password for HDD 1

[Speedvoyager]

Bought a Used puter and the HDD has a password on it can get into the bios setup but that still dosen't help to change that password or how to unlock it

 

[dumdum]

Sounds stolen to me.

Who would sell you a computer and not give you the passwords? And if they had a need to password the Hdd they would have been smart enough to wipe the drive clean before selling it to anyone.

Sorry, you may be an upstanding citizen but it sounds pretty shakey.

We are always looking for new members at our computer forums:

http://forums.jlrforum.net

 

[franklin97355]

Have you tried to repartition and reformat the drive?

 

[Speedvoyager]

That is what i was worried about my wife got the puter from her sisters husband without even checking with me first and just thinks i can fix it thanks for your help i'm just going to make her take it back.

 

[franksoprano]

Have you tried jumping the cmos to get into the BIOS? Have you tried attaching the drive to another system and seeing what is on it? or even try to format it from another system?

 

[paparazi]

Usually all it takes to get rid of the bios password is to use the cmos clear jumper or to remove the onboard Lithium button battery for 30minutes or so, obviously restting cmos settings afterwards.
Martin

Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.

 

[GOLDENCHILD]

DumDum seems to have forgotten how computers just get's trashed and sold and how many companies just removes the hardrive and trash the rest. Anyway why spend time turning on system to change password prior to sales. Ohh and by the way - Do you give YOUR passwords away ????

Other's suggested solutions should do the trick - I'll just add that rather than waiting 30 minutes you might try placing a coin where the battery was for some minutes with the machine turned off (Pull the plug on the darned thing ;-) )
regards

 

[Speedvoyager]

I haave already cleared the cmos password and got into the bios and setup area but the hard drive its self has a pasword on it. the drive came out of a dell notebook and the only other system that i have to try it in is a gateway notebook whitch didn't work.

 

[MiggyD]

FYI: The cmos battery has nothing to do with the hd password problem you are stating, it is for the computer's POST test.

As for the HD password problem, I don't understand. You got [bought] the computer [notebook] from your brother-in-law? And, he cannot provide you with the password?

If that is so, then I'd go along with franklin97355's suggestion and reformat it.

Q: When you turn it on what does it do? or say?

--MiggyD

 

[Speedvoyager]

When you turn on the computer it goes through the bios screen then a dell screen where it says to hit f2 to goto setup after a few seconds the screen goes black and has a blue box that says to enter the primary master password for the HDD then has a feild to enter 8 letters or numbers and has the serial number for the hard drive

 

[bcastner]

Some possibilities:

1. This perhaps:

http://www.bios-drivers.com/drivers/61/61224.htm

2. On most Dells the non-BIOS password is not on the hard disk. It is stored on a special chip. Here are detailed instructions on how to reset it:

http://qasimtoep.tripod.com/dell/dell.html

 

[edfair]

You are locked out until you get a password. Dell uses this as a theft deterrent. Makes Dell laptops totally worthless to thieves.

You can get a temporary password from Dell provided you have sales documentation that matches with the service tag and registration information.

I didn't get far enough into the process to see how detailed it really is because my customer is still waiting to get more documentation from the previous owner.

I suspect, but haven't been able to follow up with the suspicion, that Dell jiggers the boot sector in such a way that no post boot can get to it. And no run of the mill disk utilites either.

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