Dell Inspiron 1420 HD password

[LunchBox]

Greetings,

I have a client with a Dell Inspiron 1420.

The laptop has a hard drive password. He stated that he did not enable it. It is possible because he is very computer illiterate. He took the laptop to another tech and its possible that other tech (not longer around) enabled the password then enabled the bypass so it would not prompt. Well, its asking for a hard drive password.

1.) Do any of you know of any apps preferably free that will remove, or disable the feature that makes the process ask for a password?

I've tried a couple of BIOS password apps but they did not work. I am guessing it’s because this is a HD password I am dealing with. I can’t remember the name but they are the ones in the UBCD4WIN.


2.) Worse case scenario if I add another HD will I be able to use the laptop and install windows ETC or will it still ask for a password?

3.) Can I wipe the HD with the password or will something in the HD prevent it erasing?

4.) I have removed the battery for about 5 minutes but it did not clean the password, I am guessing that this is only for the BIOS password only and not for the HD password is this correct?

Any comments on or ideas that I have not though of will be greatly appreciated.



Once again,

Thank you

 

[B Trevathan]

Sounds similar to this problem

Sounds similar to this problem:

http://www.technibble.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12236

This is what they did to fix it, but try it at your own risk sounds like it would be easy to fry something.

on page 2
http://www.technibble.com/forums/showpost.php?p=95927&postcount=13

 

[LunchBox]

I acutally saw those to posts. I will have to consider the pin jumping carefully.

 

[Screwloose]

I acutally saw those to posts. I will have to consider the pin jumping carefully.

Well .... you may want to try this if you do not want to use Dell tech support. I looked and I do not have access to the utility they use to generate a password. I also googled and found a website that specializes in Dell HDD password removal ... it is $89 tho so I would think you would be better off just going through Dell.

Good luck.

 

[LunchBox]

UPDATE

I gave up on following the steps on looking for a chip on the MOBO to wipe the password information. Part of the reason is:
1) I did not have a magnifying glass.
2) Even if the I succeed in wiping the information, the HD has a password.

I booted the laptop with a different hard drive and boots fine.
The main issue is a 250gb HD that has a password lock on it. The drive will not boot up on any machine if placed as the master unless the password is typed in.

I have slaved the hard drive, and used a USB adapter and neither is able to wipe it due to the HD password. I am guessing that the password is written to the MBR and therefore locks the MBR and it will not allow the HD to be wiped.

I have used UBCD, Windows XP, Vista, Ubuntu and nothing is able to wipe/format the freaking hard drive.

Any of you ever come across this situation? The will have to get a new HD now but I wanted to format and re-install. Yes, the laptop belongs to the client.

Thank you

 

[B Trevathan]

Do this at your own risk.

I'm not sure this clears a hard drive password exactly. I just read the other posts and it sounds like it cleared the hard drive password and not just a bios password or the cmos settings.

There is a program (free I think) that recovers a hard drive password, but I can't remember the name of it.

Here is a link to what I have been reading http://www.darkmagic.org/mike/dell-tag/dell/dell.html

Note: If the Inpiron has chip number 24C164 this will not work it has to be chip 24C02 to work.

It may be on the top or bottom of the motherboard in a Inspiron.

You have probably seen this chip before, they are on a lot of things, like DIMMs on a DIMM they store the information about the manufacturer, size, speed, type, error checking capability, and even how the rows and columns of memory are ordered and addressed

It is a little almost square eeprom chip with 8 pins four on each side. It is a non-volatile RAM chip that is used to store the passwords and tags. Search for "24C02 dell" in Google images.

Take a look at this page:
http://www.darkmagic.org/mike/dell-tag/dell/dell6.html

​

This is roughly what the 24C02 chip will look like on your motherboard. The letters or precise arrangement or numbers / letters may be different. But, you will be able to see (possibly with a magnifier) that on the top row, 24 and C02 are printed, possibly along with other letters or numbers, depending on the manufacturer, or series of the chip.

You can use the direction of the writing and / or the location of the small indented spot shown in the bottom left hand corner of each chip to identify which pins / leads need to be jumped in order to clear the chip.


Also read this: http://www.pwcrack.com/harddisk.shtml

 

[NYJimbo]

The jumpering will not clear a HDD password.

 

[LunchBox]

Yup, that is why I gave up because I realised (eventually) that the BIOS wrote the password to the HD. You can put the HD on any PC and upon boot up it will ask for a password.

HD passwords seem to be a very good tool to use. You loose your laptop and in order to use the laptop a new HD needs to be used.

I will continue to google to see if there is a free tool to format/wipe etc the HD, so far though its a waste of time. The HD will eventually be used as a paper weight.

 

[B Trevathan]

Don't you just love Dells

Has anybody tried one of these programs on locked hard drives:

qunlock.exe

atapwd.exe

One more reason why not to buy a Dell, it seems like Dell is the only company doing this. If you buy a used Dell like off eBay then make sure you get the ownership transferred to you because if you have to call Dell about this problem you will have to prove ownership, they won't help if you don't.

 

[LunchBox]

WOW I was searching for HD password removal etc. I looked up atapwd.exe and gunlock.exe. The results gave me keywords I should of thought first.

Anyways, I found a tool that will do the trick. They even offer a free tool which will tell you if the password can be removed. the app is called HDD unlock wizard.

http://www.hddunlock.com/

This is a step closer. I wish I could find a free open source. will still search for more options.


B Trevathan thanks for your reply it help me get a little closer.

FTW = now that I see how HD passwords work, I would definetly use it if I need to protect data. It really makes the HD useless, of course nothing beats disk encryption