Solved Toshiba hdd locked

[Grego86]

Over time of repairing computers I have collected some spare parts. In my collection I have some old laptop toshiba sata hdds and they are locked with a password. They were originally on a Toshiba Satellite. I'm wanting to 0 out this particular hard drive so I can put it in a laptop and use it. I've looked for any jumpers I could play with to get the firmware to forget the password but no luck. Is there a program that could help me solve my problem ?

 

[Night Hawk]

Eraser and call it a day since that will simply nuke everything on the drive itself leaving it raw(unpartitioned, unallocated). If you are booting live from a Windows dvd opening up the command prompt and running the Disk Part tool long enough to nuke the drive at the command prompt option would be another option.

For more then one drive you can also boot live from a drive tool cd like GParted Live or Partition Wizard to simply see any and all partitions deleted with a new primary seen to replace the recovery and any other tools partitions as well as the main C volume. That eliminates the need for an OS to be present in order to run Eraser or any security program.

 

[Grego86]

Thank you ! I will give it a shot real quick and get back to you.

 

[Grego86]

Ok, I've downloaded Eraser. How do I go about to use it when I boot into RE?

 

[Night Hawk]

That's a Windows app! If you have the drive set up in an external enclosure you would then use the program option. For booting live from a Windows disk the command option would see the Disk Part "Clean" command once you List Disk and select the correct drive. It could be Disk 0 or Disk 1 or 2 depending on how many drives you have.

The live boot from a GParted or Partition Wizard cd to use the drive tools gui option would allow you to select that drive from the dropdown list of all drives and then go to work removing whatever partitions are on it. Once done there won't be any password to worry about since the drive would be cleaned off where you can create a brand new primary or wait to see that done with the Windows or other OS installer.

Here I simply keep a live GParted usb flash drive on me never knowing when I will need to change a volume label or mark it as something else. The Clean command from the command prompt option however allows you to keep the Windows repair or installation disk in the drive when going to install the OS. If you opt for a Linux distro instead the live installer will see it's own form of GParted included with the distro to take care of what is seen now.

Eraser is still a good tool to keep onhand even if you use one of the other methods. If you already had a program like Acronis the live cd option features a secure drive erase tool as well in that software. It mostly depends on which OS or version of Windows you are planning to OS the drive or have it as a spare even in an external enclosure for a backup device.

If you are booting live from a Windows disk you would simply go the Recovery Console option for an XP disk or into the repair tools on either a Vista or 7 dvd to run the Clean command if connected to another machine or if the only drive present on a laptop you could go as far as the Clean All command without risk of losing data on another drive. The Clean All command used in Disk Part is the ultimate "wipe all" command used with caution! For a single drive when more then one are present the Clean command is the recommended once the correct drive is selected.

 

[Grego86]

Well I put the locked HDD in the laptop and when I turn it on and press F12 to select what to boot from it brings up the harddisk Security for the HDD and wants me to enter password. In the BIOS I had my usb thumbdrive as first to boot from but can't get past this security block. Since I can't choose to boot from anything how will I be able to use any of the programs to erase it ?

 

[kellymac35]

Hello Grego86,
Go to Sevenforums tutorials and follow this great how to by Brink. This should put you on the right track.http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command-3.html

 

[Night Hawk]

The drive would need to be removed and placed in an external enclosure unless the bios is where the password is! Then you would need to unlock the bios setup. But simply placing the drive in an enclosure would see that wiped in a minute's time!

Your mention of not being to select which drive to boot from suggests that's where the lock is. Clearing the cmos to see factory defaults may or may not take care of that for you. For simply bringing up the boot device menu by pressing F12 to select the flash drive would otherwise immediately see everything start loading from the flash drive itself.

 

[Grego86]

This Toshiba drive I pulled from a Toshiba Satellite and put in a eMachines netbook. So the password couldn't be stored in the cmos unless the hard drive uploads it to the new cmos when I swapped it ? I'm thinking it has to be stored on the HDD some how. I have found something new though, when it boots and asks for the PW I can press ESC and get past it to boot to my thumb drive and go from there but even after running the CLEAR cmd I still am unable to install my OS. The CLEAR ALL cmd will not work either, gives me a I/O error pretty much saying it cannot communicate with the HDD. I really do appreciate yals patience, gonna give that tutorial a shot real quick. I'll keep yal posted.

 

[Grego86]

Well come to find out I've seen this same tutorial the other day and have tried the clean and clean all cmds with no luck. The clean cmd does work and I try the create primary partition and assign but with no luck. Maybe its just not meant to get this hdd working lol.

 

[Layback Bear]

If all those ideas fail to meet you needs take a look here. I haven't used it sense the old XP days so I don't remember all the dos and don't of the program.
iolo DriveScrubber® - Use DriveScrubber to wipe your hard drive clean.

 

[Grego86]

Not really lookin to pay for any programs and also keep in mind any programs I try will have to be ones I can boot from because the hdd will not show up for me when I am logged into windows. I'm about to try dban and see if I have any luck with it.

 

[F5ing]

I suspect you're going to have a hard time if that HD password is set to maximum security.


I've never run into a hard drive where someone has used the built-in disk lock capabilities. It's actually a part of the ATA specification so I imagine it's available on most all hard disks. The only ways I know of to access the disk lock features is either through a BIOS that allows it or using something like MHDD or HDParm (use them with caution, though). Regardless of how you access it consider the following:

• If the lock is set to high security I think you might be able to wipe the drive in order to be able to use it again.
• If the lock is set to maximum security I don't think you'll get anywhere with it unless you know the master password. The drive ignores any access attempts.

I determined many years ago not to bother with using this "feature" on any of my drives (worried about possible pitfalls) and again, I've never run into a drive where someone's used it, so I can't tell you what to expect or how much luck you'll have.

But it does seem promising that you were able to successfully use Diskpart's clean command. If it truly was successful that means it actually accessed the first part of the disk (MBR area), and that the security level may be set to high rather than maximum.

Data recovery services supposedly can help, though they charge you a little more than the cost of the drive itself. So really only useful if you're wanting your data back, but the fact they can do it tells you something.

 

[Night Hawk]

There are some other options available. Some won't be free but a lot cheaper then a data recovery service is likely to charge. HDD Unlock is one of the programs designed for these types of occasions.

The Computer Hope does seem to offer some hope? for this. How to lock or unlock the hard drive Of course you are talking Legacy Windows there however.

Here's something a little more of interest from the eHow site. How to Unlock a Toshiba Hard Drive With OEM security features at work the idea of placing the drive into a usb enclosure could simplify things since for the guide there still requires you be booted in Windows.

 

[Grego86]

Well I can place it in my desktop by a sata cable and run diskpart when logged in and I'll try the eHow's method that way. Don't believe I have ever tried that method mentioned.

 

[Night Hawk]

Too often most don't even realize a hard drive can be password protected as well as boards seeing the bios password option. On a board however you simply pop the battery out and call it a day there however.

 

[F5ing]

Yeah, I'm aware of HDD Unlock and associated Repair Station. HDD Unlock is relatively low priced and wipes, Repair Station more expensive but recovers. Requires internet connection to their site but can be done at home. They say they will refund if unsuccessful. Varied reviews on the 'net though.

I think those other links are for obsolete DOS commands to lock and unlock mounted drives.

 

[F5ing]

Too often most don't even realize a hard drive can be password protected as well as boards seeing the bios password option. On a board however you simply pop the battery out and call it a day there however.

But watch out for laptops that store the BIOS password in NVRAM...

 

[Night Hawk]

Once again OEMs tend to be proprietary about their own security measures and just how much you can do once something is locked up. The NVRam method would simply be in effective while the drive was installed in the laptop it came with however.

Once you pull the drive out and slave it elsewhere you then simply use a security tool to nuke the drive not trying to access any data on it which is where the password becomes a majpr obstacle. With a drive isolated however you can then opt for some effective 3rd party options like security tools to see any drive cleaned off.

The same can be said about drives someone uses the BitLocker tool on to see encrypted. If you lose or forget the password it's wipe the drive time!

 

[F5ing]

Once again OEMs tend to be proprietary about their own security measures and just how much you can do once something is locked up. The NVRam method would simply be in effective while the drive was installed in the laptop it came with however.

Once you pull the drive out and slave it elsewhere you then simply use a security tool to nuke the drive not trying to access any data on it which is where the password becomes a majpr obstacle. With a drive isolated however you can then opt for some effective 3rd party options like security tools to see any drive cleaned off.

The same can be said about drives someone uses the BitLocker tool on to see encrypted. If you lose or forget the password it's wipe the drive time!

I was referring to BIOS password. You could wait a year after pulling the battery and find the BIOS password is still there. Other methods are required.

Hard drive passwords are completely different, conforming to ATA specs, and have nothing to do with the manufacturer of the drive (or the machine's BIOS) other than the way they implement it while staying within specs. It doesn't matter what machine you connect it to or even how you connect it; it's all in the drive itself (similar to the way SMART is implemented on the controller card and a protected area of the disk platters).

The problem is that any third part security tool has to be able to interact with the drive's disk lock firmware in order to wipe the drive (if it's set to max security).

I'm not saying it can't be done though.