Inspiron HD password

Archived from groups: comp.laptops,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

AndyRemote wrote:
>
> inspiron hard drive has password protection. How can it be reset. Hitachi
> dk23ea-30
> Bought on ebay
> Thanks
> Andy.remote(remove NOSPAM) to email

It can't be reset.

Are you familiar with the term "S.O.L.?"

Sorry, that's what you are! :-(

Notan

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"AndyRemote" <andy.remote@NOSPAMverizon.net> wrote:
>inspiron hard drive has password protection. How can it be reset. Hitachi
>dk23ea-30
>Bought on ebay

It can't be reset, either get the password from the guy who sold it to
you, or throw out the hard drive and buy a new one. [This might be
grounds for an eBay complaint, as if he doesn't have the password,
there's a pretty good suspicion that it's stolen...]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"Notan" <notan@ddress.com> wrote in message
news:41DB65B7.AD3F3F23@ddress.com...
> AndyRemote wrote:
>>
>> inspiron hard drive has password protection. How can it be reset.
>> Hitachi
>> dk23ea-30
>> Bought on ebay
>> Thanks
>> Andy.remote(remove NOSPAM) to email
>
> It can't be reset.
>
> Are you familiar with the term "S.O.L.?"


Yikes. Is this somethig in the HD BIOS? Can't he take the hard drive out
and connect it to another PC, for example a desktop with the proper IDE
adapter cable, and FDISK it?

Here is the cable I've used

http://store.l-f-l.com/cgi-bin/cp-app.cgi?pg=prod&ref=H...

Archived from groups: comp.laptops,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

"AndyRemote" <andy.remote@NOSPAMverizon.net> wrote in comp.laptops:

> inspiron hard drive has password protection. How can it be reset.
> Hitachi dk23ea-30
> Bought on ebay
> Thanks
> Andy.remote(remove NOSPAM) to email


Contact the vendor, ask him the password. If he hasn't got a password,
you've been had.


--
CeeBee


"I don't know half of you
half as well as I should like;
and I like less than half of you
half as well as you deserve."

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

No, it's as bleak as was suggested.

This mechanism is entirely in the hard drive itself, and the design
philosophy that the hardware should become useless before the data
should become available without the proper password.

Basically, at power-on, you have to supply the password before the drive
will even respond to any IDE data transfer commands -- including the
commands that let the BIOS recognize that the hard drive exists. Until
the proper password is entered, the command to enter the password is the
only command that the drive will respond to. Therefore, until it's
entered, you can't use FDISK or anything else, because the drive
effectively doesn't yet exist.

It's not physically impossible to reset the password, but the knowledge
of how to do it is generally unknown, and the equipment to do it is
generally not available. There are a few places (very few) that offer
the service, but the cost is higher than the cost of a new hard drive,
so it only makes sense if it's the data, rather than the drive, that's
important. [and, hopefully, the places that can reset it ask lots and
lots of questions first]



you know who maybe wrote:

> "Notan" <notan@ddress.com> wrote in message
> news:41DB65B7.AD3F3F23@ddress.com...
>
>>AndyRemote wrote:
>>
>>
>>Are you familiar with the term "S.O.L.?"
>
>
>
> Yikes. Is this somethig in the HD BIOS? Can't he take the hard drive out
> and connect it to another PC, for example a desktop with the proper IDE
> adapter cable, and FDISK it?
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

> This mechanism is entirely in the hard drive itself,

By the way - To enlarge on Barry's description - The password is stored
(as a one-way hash) on the actual platters, in an area that can't be
read over the IDE bus. This means that you can't get the drive back
simply by swapping out the PCBA. The services that do the recovery
presumably have access to hacked versions of the controller micro, so
they can either write an unlocked signature into that area, or write
the hash of a known password into that area, then use the regular
unlock command (with their known password) to unlock the drive
permanently.

Archived from groups: comp.laptops,comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Have you tried asking Dell?
"AndyRemote" <andy.remote@NOSPAMverizon.net> wrote in message
news:XsJCd.19045$113.449@trndny03...
> inspiron hard drive has password protection. How can it be reset.
> Hitachi dk23ea-30
> Bought on ebay
> Thanks
> Andy.remote(remove NOSPAM) to email
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

there is a MASTER PAssword enabled in Dell laptops. You can remove
tahe password by entering masterPassword generated by serial number
of hard disk. I've a generator but anly for old models of Latitude