[RESOLVED] Hard drive password

[zoom14151]

I have a laptop computer that my son placed a password on the hard drive and forgot the password. You enter the password in the Bios and I cleared the Cmos and the password is still there. The password is on the drive and will not boot. Without the password the computer acts like the drive is missing. I tried formating and fdisk and both failed, stating the drive is write/read protected. Can anyone tell me a way to remove the password or format the drive.

[stevet]

Its my understanding that when you put a password on your system it has nothing to do with the hard drive. The password is totally controlled by CMOS. On a regular desktop PC, you can just temporarily move a jumper cap which will clear the CMOS password. Or you can remove the battery from the motherboard and clear the password along with other customized settings. As for your laptop, I don't know of any standard way to clear the password, but a good place to start would be the manufacturer. Look over their support pages - you sould be able to find a solution to your problem.

Steve