ATA Firmware Password

P

psychosonik

Gawd
Joined
May 29, 2002
Messages
737
i need a tool to remove the ATA password (even if it means losing data) from a laptop hard drive. (The full ATA-standard hard drive that follows the drive)

formatting, fdisking, /mbr, partition magic, anything involving partitions or the hard drive platter is irrelevent, these passwords are stored on firmware and actually shut the drive down if the password is not entered... ie... you can't access it via any dos application or boot disk.

Anybody else had this problem? I've tried tons of downloaded apps, but all have to be run from DOS and by that time it is disabled... :confused:

Thanks
 
Er, why can't you use a bootdisk to get to DOS?

Considering the nature of this thing, I'm thinking you'll have to get on google and look for programs made specifically for this. I've seen drive password things before, but, never any using firmware, so I'm thinking this is a little too rare to see any kind of universal program.
 
Nazo said:
Er, why can't you use a bootdisk to get to DOS?

Considering the nature of this thing, I'm thinking you'll have to get on google and look for programs made specifically for this. I've seen drive password things before, but, never any using firmware, so I'm thinking this is a little too rare to see any kind of universal program.
Click to expand...


-sigh- i get this everywhere i post this message, i was hoping the [H] could come through for me. It is not rare, it is in the ATA specification and has been for at least 5 years. You CAN boot with a bootdisk/cd... but it will still prompt you for the password. Upon failing to enter the password correctly, the drive turns itself off, and by the time you reach a prompt of any kind, you get a "no fixed disks present" message. Most manufacturers don't turn this option on... one of our employee's found the setting in his Dell bios and fiddled with it... bad move.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but with that setting enabled does that not prompt the user for the password every time the system boots?

Or is it the fact the user turned it on, entered a password, and on next reboot forgot the password? :p

EDIT:

I'd check with the drive manufacturer to see if they have a "reset" utility.
 
If you loose the password for the hard drive you're screwed. I have searched for a way to unlock one before and came up empty. You might be able to send it in and have the HDD manufacture reset it for you. My boss had a gateway laptop that he forgot the password to and that's what we had to do.
 
SJConsultant said:
Or is it the fact the user turned it on, entered a password, and on next reboot forgot the password? :p

EDIT:

I'd check with the drive manufacturer to see if they have a "reset" utility.
Click to expand...

Yes... we have very...stupid...users here.

Drive manufacturer will replace drive for a fee, and does not have a tool (that they distribute) to fix it.
 
jbog91 said:
could you use the ultimate boot cd's ata password tool or the ultra ata tool?

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html
Click to expand...

Tried both, both don't recognize the drive being there because the hard drive is shut down by the time these programs load. Like trying to f-disk a drive when the jumper is set wrong, the bios doesn't even detect it. The password occurs prior to pressing "f2 for setup" or anything like that.

I'm pretty sure i'm screwed like the guy mentioned before, o well... I might just break it and call dell on a broken drive.

yay complete care warranty :D
 
Have you edited that bootdisk to minimize any kind of access? I mean, it might even just be useful to hit F5 when it says starting dos so it doesn't load any drivers or anything. A complete safe mode might just keep it from accessing, or so one would hope at least. If it's STILL triggering the password even then, then the people who made that drive got a little crazy and overdid it bigtime. Personally, I'd be calling them up and complaining that they apparently decided to make it unusable to anyone who isn't so amazingly perfect they can memorize all passwords. ^_^

BTW, what I meant about the password thing being somewhat rare was that that particular implementation seems a bit more than I've ever seen before. I've seen ATA passwords before, but, they weren't such overkill firmware things that shut the drive completely down like that. Then again, the last time I saw one was a LONG time ago, so maybe was before it became official to do it that way.
 
The password is actually on the HDD controller. There is nothing the UBCD, DBAN, BartPE, or any other similar programs can do to unlock it.

It's an awesome feature if you travel with your laptop and are worried about losing your laptop and keeping people from seeing data on it. It's a bad feature if you're an idiot who sets the password and forgets it. Like the person in my aforementioned post. :p

Call the HDD manufacturer and have them swap it / unlock it.

Unless anyone knows of a tool that can break the encryption. Then tell me what it is! :D
 
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