Password Protected Laptop Drive

Soldato
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One of out employees laptop died a couple of weeks ago. We took out the hard drive because we needed to recover data from it but it would not properly initialize when in windows.

We forgot that it has a password that needs to be entered when the laptop was first turned on. This was probably why it was not recognised correctly in Windows and wouldnt initialize.

I put the drive into a desktop machine (Dell optiplex GX620) as its primary drive and it boots and says something on the lines of "please enter password..." I enter the password but it says incorrect. I know for a fact I am entering the correct password because it worked a week ago when the laptop was fine.

Is there something not recognising the password, as its inside a different box? Something to do with firmware maybe or something else that registered the drive to the Toshiba laptop that now not working as its in a Dell desktop?
 
Associate
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The password is on the hard drive itself rather than the bios.
Depending on the option set when entering the password you may be able to get an unlock CD from Dell, I would suggest phoning your account manager for information.
 
Soldato
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Tried that, its shown in disk management but needs initializing when I tried to initialize it, it doesnt do anything.

Reading this it thread it doesnt seem possible. I will contact Fujitsu and see what they say about the drive - Fujitsu model - MHW2120BH

http://www.computing.net/answers/hardware/how-to-clear-hard-drive-password/48527.html

...Otherwise, passwords/drivelocks cannot be removed from hard drives on fairly recent laptops (generally those less than ten years old), even by the experts. You must know the password, and the hard drive must be in the computer the password was installed on, or in one of a small model family made by the same maker that use the exact same method/software to lock the drive access. The password info is also stored on a chip on the more recent mboards that cannot be erased by removing a battery - you must know the password to remove a password - you could go to the expense of having that chip replaced so that the computer could be used otherwise, but the hard drive that has a password/drive lock will still have the password/drive lock.
 
Associate
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Ah, its from a Tosh, not sure then.. maybe worth contacting them? cant be the first time this has happened.

You don't have the original laptop anymore?

Or put in another drive and see what options you get when you set a hdd password..
 
Soldato
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Ah, its from a Tosh, not sure then.. maybe worth contacting them? cant be the first time this has happened.

You don't have the original laptop anymore?

Or put in another drive and see what options you get when you set a hdd password..

Yep, we still have the original laptop the drive came from. When powered on it doesnt display anything, tried connecting a monitor and that doesnt do anything either.

I'll contact Toshiba too and see what they say


Thanks
 
Soldato
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are the any special characters involved in the password? and is the keyboard the same layout? had a problem once where a keyboard was typing a " instead of a @
 
Soldato
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Nope, all letters. When you type you cant see the letters or that anything is being types but this was the same on the toshiba screen.
 
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