[RESOLVED] Hard Drive Password.

[iselllaptops]

I have about 12-15 Used IBM 560 ThinkPad Laptops with Hard Drive Passwords. The Hard Drives are Toshiba 2 Gig thin HD's.
Any way to clear these passwords?

[schultzz]

Not that I know of...this is one of those things that once it is set, you have to throw away the hard drives - or show IBM proof-of-purchase and pay them a fee. There is also a password that imbeds itself in an EEPROM on the motherboard - if you lose that one, you can throw away the motherboard, or pay IBM. All of this is standard security with ThinkPads. I believe the only password you can remove is the power-on password by draining the CMOS battery, if you can find it.

If you check on IBM's Internet site from the link in WinDrivers, you will find more information. Hope this helps.

[b_fleury]

Have you tried re-partitioning the hard drives from a boot disk? If the password is on the hard drive, this may help. You may also want to re-write the master boot record by using fdisk /mbr

E-mail me if you have any further questions, or if this doesn't work.


Bill

[stevet]

If you think that you can get rid of the password by nuking the hard drive, you might as well go for it and do a low-level format. This will destroy all data on the hard drive including all partitions and the mbr. You can download a nifty little low-level formatting utility here:

http://home.altoplanos.net/~stevet/tech/lf.exe

This program also gets rid of disk overlays and boot managers.

------------------
Steve Taylor - Service Manager
Altoplanos Information Systems, Inc.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho USA
www.altoplanos.net (http://www.altoplanos.net)

[b_fleury]

I do not mean to be contradictory to the above post, it will work if done correctly, but, I just want to let you know to be careful low level formatting a drive. It is for advanced users only. The hard drive manufacturers themselves advise against doing it unless it is a last resort. You can cause damage to your hard drive if it doesn't work properly.

Just for your information.

Bill

P.S.- thanks for the utility, I've been looking for one for a while.