change KNOWN HDD password in BIOS ( studio 1537 )

Hi. i've set a HDD password in the bios just to see how exactly would it work, but now when i enter the BIOS, i have to option to clear the password.. it says HDD password frozen. i can change the admin and user password, but i cant remove the HDD password... so now everytime i turn on my laptop, i have to enter my HDD password... in order not to get my thread closed for security reasons, ----------- THE PASSWORD IS KNOWN -------------

thank you very much for your time.

 

nobody knows huh ?....

 

Get the dell service manual, pull the laptop apart and reset the BIOS?

 

I've done this once with a fujitsu laptop (although it had a PATA not SATA disk in it).

You need to make a bootable CD or memory stick, with a special utility (I have no idea what the name would be - the one I used was ATAPWD).

Then when booted, you fire up atapwd. it comes up with a DOS gui, which is fairly easy to navigate (mods, this is not a cracking tool, just a password management utility for HDDs)

You then unlock the disk with your password, then clear the locked flag from the drive with the utility. Next time you boot the lappy, the password wont be asked.

My friend had exactly the same problem you did with his laptop, got sick of typing the password every boot after installing windows with all the reboots, and wanted to remove it.

Lets hope atapwd works with SATA disks. I dont see why it shouldnt, just set ide mode in the bios for the short time you need to mess around with atapwd, then back to ACHI when your done.

 

When you setup the password, you should have seen an option to change the HDD password. Change it.

When you enter in the new password, leave it blank.

 

This is for Greg Ross who banned a registrant in email of 09-24-2008, 11:13 PM for inquiring into clearing a known password from a Toshiba Tecra M2. I can confirm that there is a problem with BIOS handling since I am in a similar position with Satellite A100. I can change Supervisor password but not HDD or User password. Simply cannot access the fields. When I added User and Supervisor passwords, there was no indication that I was imposing an HDD password. First indication was when a password was required at hard boot. I have screwed up (message="common module terminated") Toshiba HW Setup usually available from Windows, so will have to do a Factory Restore to re-enable HW Setup from Windows, and hope it allows access to HDD password.

I do believe your previous banning was premature, and if there is an apology somewhere in this forum I withdraw my criticism.

I have fixed my Toshiba Satellite A100. I first cleared the Supervisor password, which allowed me access to the User password previously blocked. I then cleared the User password. On hard boot I was no longer prompted for a password, but the BIOS still showed HDD Password frozen. I went through a couple of hard boots, and then found the HDD password status had changed to "Not registered," which means cleared. Hope this helps.

 

I have the same laptop as yours..Dell Studio 1537 with 4 GB RAM and 160 GB HDD. The problem is that, I set a HDD password recently and now the laptop is not accepting the right password..maybe someone has put any wrong passwords a few times. I am unable to go forward. Can you please help me out? I'll use ATAPWD but I have no idea how I will be able to go to the boot menu since the HDD password prompt is right after I turn the laptop on. can't go even into Boot options. Please help. I will be really really grateful.

Ardent Regards

 

Kindly e-mail if there is any solution to this problem. E-mail address is [email protected]