Thinkpads Forum

I sold my z60t a while back. Prior to selling I upgraded the HDD and I have the original SATA 40 GB HDD sitting on my desk. I would like to use it but it has a password (which I know) so it will not mount.

Does Lenovo make a utility that I can install on the new PC that will let me unlock it? I can't find anything. Searches turn up lots of people looking to wipe drives who do not know the password, but no one seems to have the same problem as me.

I don't know of any utility like you are looking for.

If you know someone who has a ThinkPad that can use that drive maybe they could unlock it for you.

If you don't know anyone you can send it to me and I would be happy to unlock it for you and send it back.

Brad

There is no such utility made by Lenovo. You need to mount your drive in a thinkpad that can take in a SATA drive, preferably the same model as yours to remove the password.

Try the drive manufacturer. The password scheme is not Lenovo unique - it is part of the ATA standard and you just need a utility to send the proper ATA feature set commands.

Ed Gibbs

egibbs wrote:Try the drive manufacturer. The password scheme is not Lenovo unique - it is part of the ATA standard and you just need a utility to send the proper ATA feature set commands.

For that matter, wouldn't it work in any other laptop supporting hard drive password (don't they all?) as long as it's used internally as opposed to through a USB adapter?

That should work. As long as it is mounted internally

carbon_unit wrote:That should work. As long as it is mounted internally

I thought thinkpad HDDs use different drive geoemtries, which meant that they would not boot in other machines ... correct me if I am wrong, please.

It will cost a coin or two but this is heading in the right direction; http://www.hdd-tools.com/products/

You should be able to delete the password in another ThinkPad. I was able to delete a P-ATA password in the bay of a T61, here

gator wrote:I thought thinkpad HDDs use different drive geoemtries, which meant that they would not boot in other machines ... correct me if I am wrong, please.

The are different than desktop computers for sure. As fas as being different than any other laptop, I am not so sure. That is why I italicized should. I have booted a thinkpad hard drive with a preload OS on it in a different brand laptop.

I can confirm that installing in any laptop and attempting to unlock does not work. The HDD password setting is greyed out in the BIOS.

I'll have to track down a ThinkPad.

Thanks everyone!

i was on the original team that developed the power on password unlock and password decrypt, there is only 1 way to retrieve the password it has to be in the laptop you set the password in.

there is only 1 other option and 1 person who can unlock it in the world basically he was also the one who lead the development of the password retrieval, his name is victor he is in romania, he is a friend of mine and 100% reliable. i will send you a pm with his contact information.

of course he charges a small fee, but it is not much at all. he has not really done any of this work for profit he just got mad one day because someone set a power on password on a new machine an IBm wanted a fortune to replace the motherboard and said the recovery of the password was not possible. a big LOL to dumb people at IBM/LENOVO

that said of course i am always willing to buy complete and in good shape password locked or hard drive locked thinkpads

cheers disco

Moderator note: Per forum rules, no discussion of methods, techniques or instructions are allowed to be posted. Please keep that in mind.

discoy2k wrote:there is only 1 other option and 1 person who can unlock it in the world basically he was also the one who lead the development of the password retrieval, his name is victor he is in romania, he is a friend of mine and 100% reliable. i will send you a pm with his contact information.

of course he charges a small fee, but it is not much at all.

Mhm...

my apologies to the moderators, i was just trying to help, sorry i will surely make a note of your comments, thanks for bringing to my attention.

disco