Hi there thnx for the response..
I don't think it's impossible like many claim. If it can be done through software alone then I think there are enough brains on here to come up with a solution. Another thing I saw on the Toshiba website under laptop support but I did not try it yet. They have a master and user password reset utility. I'm not sure if it's for locked hard drives but I will try to see what it does.
cheers
as far as the xbox method.. some tools said unlocked but when i put the drive back in the laptop it was still locked. Unless I'm doing something wrong ( i only followed tutorials I found on the net) then I couldn't unlock my drives using an xbox.
I'm starting to believe more and more that the solution to unlocking the drive is very simple and it's probably right under my nose. I think the password is stored on the disk platter in an area where you need special access or software in order to read and write. Formatting or low lever formatting does nothing to reset the password. There must be another section on the drive which is not available to the user.
as far as the xbox method.. .
I'm not sure about this myself, I have heard people say that it's worked for them and others say that it's not a genuine password reset method. I suppose I'll have to do some testing in this area and not be so lazy. Although I am not looking forward to swapping drives in and out of my Xbox.
I think the password is stored on the disk platter in an area where you need special access or software in order to read and write
I did at one point find a good document that detailed whereabouts on the disk the password was stored, but I cant find it and cant remember the info either. I'll try and dig it out again.
dstefan, just dug up some info. You are correct about needing special access, the password is stored on a system sector of the hdd and not a user sector.
fatrabbit thank you for your help. At least now I can narrow my search. I will post any updates.
Thnx again
Ok I did some reading and I think I might have some bad news and some good news. In my case I don't care about the data … I just want to be able to use the drive again. If you are in the same situation then according to what I read is this
A disk can be locked in two modes High security mode or Maximum security mode. Bit 8 in word 128 of the IDENTIFY response tell you which mode your disk is in 0 = High, 1 = Maximum.
In High security mode, you can unlock the disk with either the user or master password, using the "SECURITY UNLOCK DEVICE" ATA command. There is an attempt limit, normally set to 5, after which you must power cycle or hard-reset the disk before you can attempt again.
In Maximum security mode, you cannot unlock the disk! The only way to get the disk back to a usable state is to issue the SECURITY ERASE PREPARE command, immediately followed by SECURITY ERASE UNIT. The SECURITY ERASE UNIT command requires the Master password and will completely erase all data on the disk. The operation is rather slow, expect half an hour or more for big disks. (Word 89 in the IDENTIFY response indicates how long the operation will take.)
I founf this freeware software which I have not tested yet because it's 2 am and I can't see straight. Anyways if anyone wants to try then give this program a try…
Yeah, secure erasing the entire drive will get rid of the password and let you use the drive again, and if it's not the data you're after then this seems like the way to go. Not good for forensics though!
..because it's 2 am and I can't see straight.
Now that's a familiar feeling!
fatrabbit you are correct. I was mostly thinking of all the locked drives we have in the office here which will probably go into the garbage. It seems like such a waste and it was foolish of me to think HD companies will care. This only means they will sell more drives )
As for the software above.. well it seems more stable than the rest but surprise !! in order to erase the drive it still asks for the master password which I don't have. Well another dead end for now but I did talk to a guy from toshiba which was very helpful……he said the password can be reset using software only. … ok that's all I got out of him. Seems this is a well industry kept secret… at least for now.
back to searching …
cheers
I did talk to a guy from toshiba which was very helpful……he said the password can be reset using software only. … ok that's all I got out of him…
cheers
That is interesting since the Tosh website says
"# DANGER! The hard drive password is encoded the hard drive, not into the specific computer. Therefore, no matter what machine the password-protected hard drive is installed in the password will be required to access the hard drive until it is removed. If the hard drive password is lost or forgotten, it becomes an expensive paperweight.
# EMPHASIZING AGAIN IF THE HARD DISK PASSWORD IS FORGOTTEN THE DATA IS IRRETRIEVABLY LOST. NO ONE ON EARTH WILL BE ABLE TO DECODE THE DATA WITHOUT THE PASSWORD."
*cough* NSA *cough )
in canada it's simple, if it comes to that then you can demand it from the suspect, should the choose to not give it to you, they can be held contempt.
simple yet non-technical.
I did talk to a guy from toshiba which was very helpful……he said the password can be reset using software only. … ok that's all I got out of him…
cheersThat is interesting since the Tosh website says
"# DANGER! The hard drive password is encoded the hard drive, not into the specific computer. Therefore, no matter what machine the password-protected hard drive is installed in the password will be required to access the hard drive until it is removed. If the hard drive password is lost or forgotten, it becomes an expensive paperweight.
# EMPHASIZING AGAIN IF THE HARD DISK PASSWORD IS FORGOTTEN THE DATA IS IRRETRIEVABLY LOST. NO ONE ON EARTH WILL BE ABLE TO DECODE THE DATA WITHOUT THE PASSWORD."
If it were possible to beat the password via the ERASE function, wouldn't the data all be in slack space, and therefore recoverable? I suppose it depends on how the disk is cleansed, of course…