How To Remove HardDrive Password

[ArtShapiro]

A quick search didn't seem to pop up what I would think might be an occasional question, so let me ask it:

On Sunday, I'm going to receive a T42 from a friend who wants it totally wiped of all the corporate garbage that makes it so difficult to use in the name of security. He's retired now, and the T42 is his. I'm certainly able to reinstall XP and the drivers from scratch, although if I'm really lucky the Thinkpad button will restore the possibly-still-existent hidden partition and make me look like a genius in a few minutes!

He tells me that one of the nuisance features is a hard drive password, which of course he knows. He'd just as soon have that feature removed as well.

I've never dealt with a TP with hard drive password before, being just paranoiac enough to know that if something ever went wrong, say goodbye to the disk. Is it obvious how to remove this thing? Is it simply a matter of somehow changing the password and supplying the empty string as the new password?

Thanks for any words of wisdom - I'd rather know what I'm facing before I actually receive the machine.

Art

[GomJabbar]

From the T42 Hardware Maintenance Manual...

Hard-disk password:
There are two hard-disk passwords (HDPs):
* User HDP—for the user
* Master HDP—for the system administrator, who can use it to get access to the hard disk even if the user has changed the user HDP

Note: There are two modes for the HDP: User only and Master + User. The Master + User mode requires two HDPs; the system administrator enters both in the same operation. The system administrator then provides the user HDP to the system user.

Attention: If the user HDP has been forgotten, check whether a master HDP has been set. If it has, it can be used for access to the hard disk drive. If no master HDP is available, neither Lenovo nor Lenovo authorized servicers provide any services to reset either the user or the master HDP, or to recover data from the hard disk drive. The hard disk drive can be replaced for a scheduled fee.

Supervisor password:A supervisor password (SVP) protects the system Related service information
information stored in the BIOS Setup Utility. The user must enter the SVP in order to get access to the BIOS Setup Utility and change the system configuration.

Attention: If the SVP has been forgotten and cannot be made available to the servicer, there is no service procedure to reset the password. The system board must be replaced for a scheduled fee.

[GomJabbar]

I guess I left out the important part...

How to remove the hard-disk password
Attention: If User only mode is selected and the user HDP has been forgotten and cannot be made available to the servicer, neither Lenovo nor Lenovo authorized servicers provide any services to reset the user HDPs or to recover data from the hard disk drive. The hard disk drive can be replaced for a scheduled fee.
To remove a user HDP that has been forgotten, when the SVP and the master HDP are known, do the following:

For T42/T42p series:
1. Turn on the computer; then, while the “To interrupt normal startup, press the blue Access IBM button” message is displayed at the lower-left of the screen, press the Access IBM button. The Rescue and Recovery screen opens. For models supporting the Passphrase function, press F1 while HDP icon is appearing on the screen; then enter the master HDP. For the other models, enter the master HDP.
Note: To check whether the ThinkPad computer supports the Passphrase function, enter BIOS Setup Utility and go to Security --> Password. If Using Passphrase item is displayed in the menu, this function is available on the ThinkPad computer.
2. Click Access BIOS. The system Restart Required window is displayed.
3. Click Yes. The computer restarts, and the BIOS Setup Utility screen opens.
4. Select Security, using the cursor directional keys to move down the menu.
5. Select Password.
6. Select Hard-disk x password, where x is the letter of the hard disk drive. A pop-up window opens.
7. Select Master HDP.
8. Type the current master HDP in the Enter Current Password field. then leave the Enter New Password field blank, and press Enter twice.
9. Press F10.
10. Select Yes in the Setup Configuration window. Both user HDP and master HDP will have been removed.

[ArtShapiro]

Thanks for the info - I didn't think to pull open my HMM!

As this was a company-issued laptop at the time, it wouldn't surprise me if there were a master HD Password. I hope that wouldn't prevent him from blanking out the user password, but I could see that it might be a "reasonable" restriction although not good in this particular case.

I've emailed asking if there's a supervisor password - I'm sure he never had need to be concerned with its existence or non-existence before - because that could conceivably complicate my life.

And as I type this, I just got a response that he thinks there's only a user password. I'm not sure how informed that statement is, but I'll hope for the best.

Art

[RealBlackStuff]

Worst case scenario: you need to buy a new hard disk and install using Recovery CDs.

[GomJabbar]

You better hope a Supervisor Password has not been set.

Supervisor password:A supervisor password (SVP) protects the system Related service information
information stored in the BIOS Setup Utility. The user must enter the SVP in order to get access to the BIOS Setup Utility and change the system configuration.

Attention: If the SVP has been forgotten and cannot be made available to the servicer, there is no service procedure to reset the password. The system board must be replaced for a scheduled fee.

[RealBlackStuff]

When you get it, look at the lock-images here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-59377
Then let us know what you find.

[dozer]

Let me ask the OP's question with a slightly different emphasis.

Rather than "how do I remove the HD password", which implies recovering use of the data on it....

.....I'd like to know whether a 'locked' and/or 'encrypted' HD can still be acted upon to -wipe- it....simply so it can be reformatted to be useful again?

I'm looking at getting a Z61 with what the seller calls an 'encrypted' 120gb HD that's causing a boot-error....which is why the machine will be cheap....i.e., he of course thinks of it as a 'bad' i.e. unusable HD.

I'm wondering what methods, even including physical/electrical actions to the HD itself, could make the drive usable again.

thanks for any methods, links, or insight,

Richard