I have a Toshiba Tecra A10 The Hard drive is protected with a password set within the OS.
This is not a windows password!!! The first think this machine does is ask for the HDD Password. (I know the password)
The problem is this laptop has a problem with system32/config/system when booting.
I have tried live disks and the windows recovery disk and they all cant mount the drive. When i put the machine in my working desktop it doesn't show up.
Is there some software i can use on my desktop machine to input the password to allow me to access the data on this protected drive ???? Else any way to remove the password (for free if possible)
Cheers
Might need the Toshiba Master Password utility
However Toshiba says about the password
CAUTION Make sure you choose a hard disk drive master
password you can remember easily. If you set a hard disk drive
user password and later forget the password or lose your
password diskette, you will need to enter the hard disk drive
master password in order to access your hard disk.
NOTE Once it is set, the master password can be changed but not
deleted.
I'm confused by your question. you say
The Hard drive is protected with a password set within the OS. This is not a windows password!!!
These two statements are contradictory!
I'm guessing that you are referring to an ATA Disk Password. If so, you are correct that this is not a Windows password, however it is NOT set within the OS. It is set and controlled from the BIOS. The OS has nothing to do with it.
The first think <sic> this machine does is ask for the HDD Password. (I know the password) The problem is this laptop has a problem with system32/config/system when booting.
Ok, clearly you know and correctly entered the password. The first thing you need to do is remove this password. That is done via the BIOS SETUP. All of the machines are a little different in the details, but in general you go into the BIOS SETUP and look for security/password settings. Somewhere in there you should find a disk drive password control option. Don't confuse this with the CMOS/Admin/User passwords. Clearing the password will require entering the current password, which you already know.
I have tried live disks and the windows recovery disk and they all cant mount the drive. When i put the machine in my working desktop it doesn't show up.
Once you've used the "Same Machine's" BIOS to clear the password, you should be good to go for everything else. You want to use the same machine to remove the disk password because the disk password is quite long and pattern filled beyond whatever password you use and different vendors use different patterns.
Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you.
Dave Moore
Watcher,
Toshiba (I mistakenly said Acer before) has a separate utility for HDD passwords that is outside the BIOS and OS.