Dell SSD password

Hiya all

I dunno if anyone has come across this problem before, but a customer of mine brought me a Dell inspiron 910 net book last week which his 10 year son had inadvertently set a SSD password on the drive, he can't remember what he set it to so as you can imagine his father isn't very happy. (We did try beating the child with a big stick to get the password, but he wouldn't bend) ... only joking
But now every time you try to boot up it asks for the SSD password, and will not continue until you enter the correct password. I have the proof of purchase, s/n & documentation but Dell won't budge and refuse to assist (which I sort of understand), so my question is, does anyone know a work around. I have removed the battery, reset the bios etc. and followed all the normal procedures but the SSD password is locked to the drive and not the net book. The father has no problem purchasing a new SSD but he would like to recover some of the files from the drive. (I have connected the ssd externally but I can't access any files due to the password protection)

regards

Nick

Try a live Linux disc to get to the files. Then I would reformat the SSD - also in Linux.

Thanks pal I'll give it a go

Gave it a whirl but it didn't work but thanks anyway

What Linux did you use and what did it say.

Is their a chance this computer came with a bios password and for what ever reason nobody knows it?

What method was use to set a password to just one drive?
If by chance a encrypt system password was used your not going to get into it.
I'm thinking this is way over the ability of most 10 year old.

whs said:

What Linux did you use and what did it say.

Ubuntu & Mint both said "Error reading /dev/ssd1/ 3A56A42656A3E0BD: Command-line `mount -t "ntfs" -o "uhelper=udisks2,nodev,nosuid,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0077,fmask=0177" "/dev/ssd1" "/media/3A56A42656A3E0BD"' exited with non-zero exit status 18:
Failed to mount '/dev/ssd1 2 3 4 ': Operation not permitted or locked ....

Layback Bear said:

Is their a chance this computer came with a bios password and for what ever reason nobody knows it?

What method was use to set a password to just one drive?
If by chance a encrypt system password was used your not going to get into it.
I'm thinking this is way over the ability of most 10 year old.

The SSD password was set in the bios, I can get into the bios but I can't change/reset the SSD password

If the password is in the BIOS, a reset of the BIOS might help. One way to do that is by disconnecting the Cmos battery and then reconnecting it.

On the other hand - if the password is in the BIOS, the SSD might work if it is attached to another system with a different BIOS.

On my Sony Laptop the password is stored in the bois of the harddrive . Sony told me that if I ever forget the password , the data was not recoverable and fully encrypted . Sorry

Nick you can have the owner contact Dell support and see if they can help him. I've not heard of this type of password either, it does sound more like drive encryption.

Dell did help me reset a BIOD password I had forgotten. Ownership will have to be proven to Dell's satisfaction.