Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to access the data of my Thinkpad R50e's HDD. Currently I don't have access to a thinkpad. I do have access to an external USB housing.

The problem is, the HDD is not recognized under windows XP when linked to my non IBM PC. Probably due to the special IBM firmware and the fact tah I have a drive password active.

Is there a way to access this data? Or do I really need to plug the housing into a thinkpad to get to my data?

Thanks

I suspect that the password function does not work over USB. If you have a desktop computer, you could get an adapter and try to plug it directly into ATA as opposed to USB. This should ask you for the password.

The ATA password scheme will NOT work over USB, and that is why your drive is not being recognized.

You need to find another machine whose BIOS implements the ATA standard password protocol. Most (all?) laptops will, some (many) desktops will not.

If you can get the drive in a machine that can read it, you can clear the password using whatever protocol that machine uses (usually it's in the BIOS somewhere) and then access it in any machine or over USB.

Ed Gibbs