Password protected laptop HDDs?
in [Hardware]
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From: ~misfit~ on 30 Jun 2010 20:30 I have a friend who is the IT guy for a company. Recently he was tasked with disposing of several EOL (for them) laptops and company policy for them is to remove and destroy (big hammer...) the HDDs and then pass on the rest of the machine to the IT reseller company which they always deal with. I couldn't bear to see / hear about good HDDs being smashed so I gave him my word (which is indeed my bond, he's known me long enough to know that's true) that the data wouldn't be accessed at all, just wiped. So I became the proud owner of five second-hand Toshiba 120GB 5400rpm SATA HDDs. (Model MK1252GSX) However, when I dropped them in a SATA-USB dock and went to run my HDD scrubbing / over-writing software I got a message that the HDD was password protected. They all are. (I get a similar message when I put them in my ThinkPad HDD ultrabay only from the ThinkPad BIOS.) I've Googled but have so far been unable to resolve the issue. It seems that I may have to destroy them after all. That goes against everything that I believe in. :-( Can anybody help me in my quest to keep perfectly good HDDs out of the landfill and do my bit for reducing needless waste? TYVMIA, -- Shaun. "When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson.
From: ShadowTek on 30 Jun 2010 21:38 On 2010-07-01, ~misfit~ <sore_n_happy(a)nospamyahoo.com.au> wrote: > > However, when I dropped them in a SATA-USB dock and went to run my HDD > scrubbing > / over-writing software I got a message that the HDD was password protected. Are you simply trying to overwrite the files on the filesystem? If the filesystem is encrypted, all you can do is reformat the disk.
From: ~misfit~ on 1 Jul 2010 01:10 Somewhere on teh intarwebs ShadowTek wrote: > On 2010-07-01, ~misfit~ <sore_n_happy(a)nospamyahoo.com.au> wrote: >> >> However, when I dropped them in a SATA-USB dock and went to run my >> HDD scrubbing >> / over-writing software I got a message that the HDD was password >> protected. > > Are you simply trying to overwrite the files on the filesystem? > > If the filesystem is encrypted, all you can do is reformat the disk. No, the lock-out is seemingly in the HDDs firmware, I can't even access them to reformat them. -- Shaun. "When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson.
From: Grinder on 1 Jul 2010 02:17 On 7/1/2010 12:10 AM, ~misfit~ wrote: > Somewhere on teh intarwebs ShadowTek wrote: >> On 2010-07-01, ~misfit~<sore_n_happy(a)nospamyahoo.com.au> wrote: >>> >>> However, when I dropped them in a SATA-USB dock and went to run my >>> HDD scrubbing >>> / over-writing software I got a message that the HDD was password >>> protected. >> >> Are you simply trying to overwrite the files on the filesystem? >> >> If the filesystem is encrypted, all you can do is reformat the disk. > > No, the lock-out is seemingly in the HDDs firmware, I can't even access them > to reformat them. I've run into this situation a few times in xbox (original) modding forums, as that console would hardware lock the drive based upon a password encoded in a chip on the motherboard. In the half-dozen resolutions I participated in, we were able to retrieve the hd key from the xbox, or use a known password from the process that had last modded the system. However, there were two claims as to how to unlock a drive where you truly did not know the password: 1) Flash the firmware. Apparently, on some HDs, flashing the firmware would also wipe out the existing key. I have not personally confirmed that this has ever worked. 2) Use a backdoor password from the manufacturer. Some manufacturers apparently realized the inherent fatality in lost passwords, and wrote in one that would always be recognized. I have not personally confirms that this has ever worked. Good luck to you, and please report your finding as this is something where my interest far exceeds my education.
From: ~misfit~ on 1 Jul 2010 06:28
Somewhere on teh intarwebs Grinder wrote: > On 7/1/2010 12:10 AM, ~misfit~ wrote: >> Somewhere on teh intarwebs ShadowTek wrote: >>> On 2010-07-01, ~misfit~<sore_n_happy(a)nospamyahoo.com.au> wrote: >>>> >>>> However, when I dropped them in a SATA-USB dock and went to run my >>>> HDD scrubbing >>>> / over-writing software I got a message that the HDD was password >>>> protected. >>> >>> Are you simply trying to overwrite the files on the filesystem? >>> >>> If the filesystem is encrypted, all you can do is reformat the disk. >> >> No, the lock-out is seemingly in the HDDs firmware, I can't even >> access them to reformat them. > > I've run into this situation a few times in xbox (original) modding > forums, as that console would hardware lock the drive based upon a > password encoded in a chip on the motherboard. In the half-dozen > resolutions I participated in, we were able to retrieve the hd key > from the xbox, or use a known password from the process that had last > modded the system. > > However, there were two claims as to how to unlock a drive where you > truly did not know the password: > > 1) Flash the firmware. Apparently, on some HDs, flashing the firmware > would also wipe out the existing key. I have not personally confirmed > that this has ever worked. > > 2) Use a backdoor password from the manufacturer. Some manufacturers > apparently realized the inherent fatality in lost passwords, and wrote > in one that would always be recognized. I have not personally > confirms that this has ever worked. > > Good luck to you, and please report your finding as this is something > where my interest far exceeds my education. Ok, thanks for the input. As mentioned extensive Google searches haven't come up with anything yet but my Google-fu isn't as good as it could be. I'll be sure to post if I find a fix. -- Cheers, Shaun. "When we dream.... that's just our brains defragmenting" G Jackson. |