Solved Acer HDD password. Cannot access HDD.

[Leonfagan71]

Hello Lovely people on the SevenForums,

I have an Acer laptop,
I set a HDD password for the laptop to stop family from accessing the laptop.
Now it was working fine until my Laptop died the other day (motherboard problem).
So, I brought the laptop drive to my work and plugged it in using a USB caddy,
this did not allow the disk to be read, now, the HDD password was in the headers of the drive so I would need to plug it into a SATA port on my computer for the drive to be read.
BUT, my work PC is not an Acer PC, the correct HDD password kept being marked as incorrect.

just incase someone states this: I've checked caps, the password always gets marked as incorrect.

This makes me think that my computer hashes my password in some way and then checks if the password unlocks the drive.

Now, I really need the data on the drive, or the HDD to work in HBCD just so I can do a disk copy to another drive.

Any help is massively appreciated.

 

[rvcjew]

What model laptop and is it and was it the supervisor password in the bios that you set or something else?

 

[Leonfagan71]

It was a Acer Aspire 5720.

Not the BIOS password, it was set in the BIOS but was the HDD password.

Cheers,
Leonfagan71

 

[rvcjew]

It looks like the password is indeed saved in a header and you might only be able unlock it buy replacing your motherboard. It has to be done in same board type it was made. EDIT: when you put it in another pc does it actually show you a screen to put in a code?

 

[Leonfagan71]

Okay, is there no way to remove the password from the drive without the motherboard.

 

[rvcjew]

Okay, is there no way to remove the password from the drive without the motherboard.

There is a tool that does it, it is talked about in the service manual of many acer laptops, but you need the orginal hardware to finally unlock it I think. You don't have it locked now do you? when you put it in the pc at work you tried to boot off it and it asked you for the password then?

 

[Leonfagan71]

Okay, is there no way to remove the password from the drive without the motherboard.

There is a tool that does it, it is talked about in the service manual of many acer laptops, but you need the orginal hardware to finally unlock it I think. You don't have it locked now do you? when you put it in the pc at work you tried to boot off it and it asked you for the password then?

Yep, I had it in my work PC and it asked for the password when trying to access the drive.
It is currently locked unfortunately.

 

[rvcjew]

Okay, is there no way to remove the password from the drive without the motherboard.

There is a tool that does it, it is talked about in the service manual of many acer laptops, but you need the orginal hardware to finally unlock it I think. You don't have it locked now do you? when you put it in the pc at work you tried to boot off it and it asked you for the password then?

Yep, I had it in my work PC and it asked for the password when trying to access the drive.
It is currently locked unfortunately.

it gives you an error code with the lock out yes?

 

[Leonfagan71]

There is a tool that does it, it is talked about in the service manual of many acer laptops, but you need the orginal hardware to finally unlock it I think. You don't have it locked now do you? when you put it in the pc at work you tried to boot off it and it asked you for the password then?

Yep, I had it in my work PC and it asked for the password when trying to access the drive.
It is currently locked unfortunately.

it gives you an error code with the lock out yes?

Yes,
It produces the Incorrect Password and after 5 times locks out

 

[rvcjew]

Can you post a picture of the unlock box that comes up and what it also shows once it locks you out please?

 

[Leonfagan71]

As requested.

 

[rvcjew]

Does this do anything if you use it as the code? Normally you need to use the code as shown below that the original motherboard generates.
du4fh8f

 

[Leonfagan71]

Does this do anything if you use it as the code? Normally you need to use the code as shown below that the original motherboard generates.
du4fh8f

Nope, that was not coming up.
I did manage to fix it in the end,
I work in an IT repair shop so we had an acer in.
I tried it on there and it seemed to work. straight into the BIOS and security tab and removed the password.
I think the way Acer Aspire models check passwords must be the same and not motherboard specific.

Thank you for your help.

Cheers,
Leon

 

[rvcjew]

No that would have worked but I was using your serial number of the drive and not the code the normal bios would give as it was the only thing in your picture, if you had another issue and had to get it unlocked in the same machine it would work if you use the right code.
Glad you got it all sorted though, i'v been down that route and it sucks.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Just my two cents worth mate if you get stuck again use this to get data back if nothing else.

BOOTABLE UBUNTU

Make a bootable Ubuntu disk http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Set the BIOS to boot from the optical when themachine boots it will show you a screen with TRY or INSTALL >select TRY not INSTALL

When it is finished - it takes very little time youwill get a screen like in the pic .

Open the drive you want > User and dig downuntil you get to the data / settings you may be able to copy / paste thematerial you want to an external source or other installed drive doing this.

I am not sure if it will but I have recovered tonsof data etc using this method both on "dead" or just plain drivesthat you cannot get data from using Windows.
There is a Linux Mint MATE version but I use this one because I find it a tad quicker