Remove (known) hard drive password

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MCheiron · #1 Post by **MCheiron** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:47 am

Hello,

I finally got my new T61p. But instead of having a smooth transition from my old T40p, the T40p died completely two days ago, with not even booting to the BIOS. Most of my recent files are on that T40p hard drive, which had a password on it that I had to type in during the booting.

Can I somehow remove this password, because I think the hard drive interfaces of the T61p and T40p are different? Could I use an USB inclosure for the password protected hard drive and remove the password?

Thanks a lot for your help.

MCheiron

MOD EDIT: Thread moved to T4x forum for you to receive more, better and accurate replies.

egibbs · #2 Post by **egibbs** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:05 am

Although I've never tried it, I've seen plenty of reports of password protected drives NOT working in USB enclosures - I don't think you are ever prompted for the password nor is there a way to remove it over USB.

You need to find another machine that implments the ATA/IDE standard password protection scheme in BIOS, and plug the drive into one of the IDE ports. Another Thinkpad with parallel ATA (T4X or lower) should be able to do it, as should other laptops that have the feature enabled. The T61p uses serial ATA, so I don't think you could even plug that drive into it.

Ed Gibbs

MCheiron · #3 Post by **MCheiron** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 6:12 am

Thanks for your answer.

Is there maybe a possibility with the ultrabay hard drive enclosure? Would that be able to recognized in the BIOS during boot up?

mooingmooseman · #4 Post by **mooingmooseman** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:26 am

one easy solution sounds like to just pop it in to a similar laptop (another T series) and get the files pulled that way.

i'd be happy to offer you my t43 (2668-cto) if you'd be willing to ship over the drive and pay for the shipping back. i think the t43 would work, no?

just putting that out there. i would probably just pull the data, temporarily store it on my external drive, reformat your hard drive, then put it all back as data (so no password)

i guess you would need a case to pull the data after i send it back again? or i can put it on dvd if it'll fit. or. w/e. yea just offering. i'm in NYC

andyP · #5 Post by **andyP** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:32 am

What works is the following;

I set a hdd password, (user and master), in bios for my bay hdd in my T43. I then put the bay hdd in a T61 bay and during boot it required the hdd2 password. In Vista I had complete access to the hdd and files.

edit The negative side is that when I hot plug the drive it naturally isn't recognised because bios hasn't had the password entered.

Unfortunately it does not allow me to delete the password in bios, but if I get the chance I'll play around with that as well.

#6 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 8:37 am

It definitely will not work in a USB enclosure. It might work in an ultrabay enclosure. It will absolutely work if put in the hd bay on a T2x through T42 series thinkpad.

andyP · #7 Post by **andyP** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:17 am

MCheiron wrote:Thanks for your answer.

Is there maybe a possibility with the ultrabay hard drive enclosure? Would that be able to recognized in the BIOS during boot up?

Yes it is possible, I've just done it. There may be a shorter way, but these are the steps that I took;
In T61, (without bay drive in it), set bios supervisor and hdd1 master and user password to the same password as used in my T43. - save + exit - turn off.
I removed hdd1, put the bay drive in and entered bios, entering the required passwords. I was then able to delete the hdd2 master and user passwords.
When hot plugged into my T43 it was immediately recognised - no password

EDIT this is not necessary

MCheiron · #8 Post by **MCheiron** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:23 am

Thanks for all your answers. I think there is no way around the ultrabay enclosure. I hoped there is a software that would let me change or delete the password under Windows when attached as an external usb drive.

MCheiron

egibbs · #9 Post by **egibbs** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:54 pm

MCheiron wrote:Thanks for your answer.

Is there maybe a possibility with the ultrabay hard drive enclosure? Would that be able to recognized in the BIOS during boot up?

If you have a Parallel ATA machine and adapter, yes - I have a password protected drive in the Ultrabay of my T42p right now.

I'm pretty sure that the T61p ultrabay is SATA though, not PATA.

Ed Gibbs

egibbs · #10 Post by **egibbs** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 12:59 pm

andyP wrote:Yes it is possible, I've just done it. There may be a shorter way, but these are the steps that I took;
In T61, (without bay drive in it), set bios supervisor and hdd1 master and user password to the same password as used in my T43. - save + exit - turn off.
I removed hdd1, put the bay drive in and entered bios, entering the required passwords. I was then able to delete the hdd2 master and user passwords.
When hot plugged into my T43 it was immediately recognised - no password

Andy - are you saying it is possible to plug a PATA drive into a SATA slot? If so I didn't know that - thought the connectors were different.

Ed Gibbs

#11 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 2:39 pm

The ultrabay will accept a PATA hard drive adapter or a SATA hard drive adapter. You will need a PATA adapter.

MCheiron · #12 Post by **MCheiron** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 4:37 pm

Thanks, for the really important detail. So the PATA adapter fits in the T61? Could you please confirm that again and I will get one tomorrow.

MCheiron

cmarti · #13 Post by **cmarti** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:15 pm

MCheiron wrote:Thanks, for the really important detail. So the PATA adapter fits in the T61? Could you please confirm that again and I will get one tomorrow.

MCheiron

No, the T61 uses a SATA drive.

#14 Post by **carbon_unit** » Thu Aug 30, 2007 7:24 pm

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

andyP · #15 Post by **andyP** » Fri Aug 31, 2007 2:19 am

MCheiron wrote:Thanks, for the really important detail. So the PATA adapter fits in the T61? Could you please confirm that again and I will get one tomorrow.

100% the links provided by carbon_unit say it all.

MCheiron · #16 Post by **MCheiron** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:32 pm

andyP wrote:
Yes it is possible, I've just done it. There may be a shorter way, but these are the steps that I took;
In T61, (without bay drive in it), set bios supervisor and hdd1 master and user password to the same password as used in my T43. - save + exit - turn off.
I removed hdd1, put the bay drive in and entered bios, entering the required passwords. I was then able to delete the hdd2 master and user passwords.
When hot plugged into my T43 it was immediately recognised - no password

Thanks andyP for your answer. Unfortunately, when I take out my primary hard drive and plug in the 2nd hard drive (in the ultrabay) the option of changing the user+master password for the hard drive in the BIOS greyed out. I tried all kinds of combinations (e.g. both hard drives in, different passwords, same passwords, ... ) but I cannot remove the password with my T61.

Does anybody have a different idea or am I doing anything wrong?

Thanks, MCheiron

#17 Post by **richk** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 5:01 pm

Is it possible passphrase is enabled on one machine or the other?

andyP · #18 Post by **andyP** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:49 am

richk wrote:Is it possible passphrase is enabled on one machine or the other?

richk is correct, if passphrase is selcted in your T61 the option to change / delete the second hdd PW will not be available.
Also if you have the PW protected hdd in your T61 you will not be able to change the passphrase status.

In short; with the second hdd not inserted, enter bios and make sure passphrase is diabled. After saving changes you can insert the second hdd and will be able to change / delete the PW. It is not necessary to have any passwords set in your T61.

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Remove (known) hard drive password

Remove (known) hard drive password

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