Hard drive locked

W

wenchris

New Member
My son in all his wisdom put a password on his hard drive. Gateway 7330GZ notebook. You guessed it, either he typed it wrong twice or just forgot it. Boot up screen says "Hard disc locked enter password"- As it is now, it makes a good paper weight. Any sugestions, Gateway support says to send it to them $$$$$ Trying to maybe do it ourselves. Please help!!!!!!!
Thanx Jimmy
 
Ok, Maybe you can Clear CMOS and RTC jumpers to set back your BIOS to it's orginal settings? Thats what mine does on a bad overclock. Im really not sure if a laptop has jumpers... Did you visit gateway support to find anything.
 
opened it up today removed cmos battery. Can get into the bios settings now, under security tab cannot access the HDD password say's its locked. Only left battery off for about 5 min. maybe not long enough??? Did not see any jumpers thou after I found the battery I stopped looking. Gateway wants $299+ shipping OUCH!!!!
Any sugestions......Thanx Jimmy
 
Ok after searching all over the net, I think I have this right. After removing the cmos battery I only cleared the password to the bios settings. There is still a password on the hard drive that cannot be removed, am I correct? The only way around this, is to replace the hard drive correct? If I get a new hard drive off E-Bay I still have to reinstall the operating system, right? What about the recovery services out there anyone have any input on these? I know so many Q's but I'm trying to do this in the cheapest possible way. Thanx Jimmy:confused:
 
wenchris said:
Ok after searching all over the net, I think I have this right. After removing the cmos battery I only cleared the password to the bios settings. There is still a password on the hard drive that cannot be removed, am I correct? The only way around this, is to replace the hard drive correct? If I get a new hard drive off E-Bay I still have to reinstall the operating system, right? What about the recovery services out there anyone have any input on these? I know so many Q's but I'm trying to do this in the cheapest possible way. Thanx Jimmy:confused:
Click to expand...

thats weird, i've never seen an option to lock the hard drive. I've seen bois passwords but not this. You might be able to get an adapter and put it in a destop system to be able to copy data over, not for sure though. But it seems like you would still have to get past the bios drive lock. maybe not.
 
let me mess around with my hard drive. i will post back...

Also i just want to make sure this is ok to post. may cross the line may not. if a mod says this topic is ok i will post. (i think it is just want to follow the rules :cool:)
 
It won't help moving a password protected harddrive, it's the firmware on the disk that denies access without the proper password. It's part of the ATA specification
 
This sounds an bit suspicious to me. I advise nobody to actually tell them how to crack passwords.

New HDD, yes. Reload, yes. Good to go, yes.
 
Oscar, thank you for your help. I have been called many things in my 48 years on this earth, but a thief I am not. I understand your suspicion with all the stolen laptops out there. The only motive I have here is trying to save my son some money. I am not a parent that just hands over money because he made a stupid mistake. We all must take responsibility for our actions, you broke it, you pay for it. Is there any way to convince the helpful members of this forum? I will e-mail anyone the documentation (receipts with serial #'s with pictures of the back of the laptop showing the model # and serial #, name address) what ever you need. Like I said I am just trying to save my son some $$$.
Thanx Jimmy
 
Look for a dip switch or a place to short on the motherboard with a relevant label. I couldn't find your MB diagram.

I have a feeling that Gateway may replace the chip to solve this.

Cheers
 
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