How does the CMOS hard drive password work? I have a Gateway MX6124, btw
if it matters. I mean if I set it and the laptop or the hard drive dies,
what happens next? Can the hard drive be read installed in another
laptop? Or do you need the password for it and that laptop must support
passwords too? I am just curious how this all works as I might need this
knowledge someday. ;-)
"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message
news:48176075$0$6436$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere. com...
> How does the CMOS hard drive password work? I have a Gateway MX6124, btw
> if it matters. I mean if I set it and the laptop or the hard drive dies,
> what happens next?
Quick answer - nothing - you buy another drive.
> Can the hard drive be read installed in another laptop?
NO
> Or do you need the password for it and that laptop must support
> passwords too?
The reason for password protecting a hard drive or the BIOS on a laptop is
SECURITY. The cost of a drive or a pc is immaterial compared to the
ability of someone else ( "the bad guys") to get at your data.
Having said that, google " hdd password " and you'll find places like
this: http://www.hddunlock.com/
> I am just curious how this all works as I might need this knowledge
> someday. ;-)
>
> --
> Bill
In news:nYCdnQotYcmO5orVnZ2dnUVZ_uGdnZ2d@comcast.com,
- Bobb - typed on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:46:31 -0400:
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message
> news:48176075$0$6436$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere. com...
>> How does the CMOS hard drive password work? I have a Gateway MX6124,
>> btw if it matters. I mean if I set it and the laptop or the hard
>> drive dies, what happens next?
>
> Quick answer - nothing - you buy another drive.
Okay if the hard drive password is set and it dies (the hard drive) and
you throw in a new hard drive, the laptop does nothing to stop the new
hard drive from working right?
>> Can the hard drive be read installed in another laptop?
> NO
Well I like to buy two of the same laptop models and I do in this case
as well. I do this for troubleshooting and spare parts. I assume I can
still swap hard drives (takes 30 seconds to do so) and whether the hard
drive has a password or not, things are still ok as long as I know the
password of a password protected hard drive.
>> Or do you need the password for it and that laptop must support
>> passwords too?
>
> The reason for password protecting a hard drive or the BIOS on a
> laptop is SECURITY. The cost of a drive or a pc is immaterial
> compared to the ability of someone else ( "the bad guys") to get at
> your data. Having said that, google " hdd password " and you'll find
> places like
> this:
> http://www.hddunlock.com/
Well that sounds okay with me. As virtually everything I have on any of
my computers is boring data like news clippings and research data. So no
big deal there. The only things I do have that could be worth anything
to others is maybe things like Yahoo passwords and other website
passwords. Although even this isn't too much of a big deal I don't
think. As if they were not changed, I could change the passwords anyway
before the bad guys had access to them. Plus they really can't do much
damage except to pretend to be me anyway.
Also thanks for the keyword to search for. I found a lot of interesting
things on Google. And I found some people claiming that they boot up
their laptops that didn't have any hard drive passwords and then
suddenly ask for them. That would be scary if true. Although it sounds
like to me these people are actually asking how to remove the password
so they (the bad guys) can access the hard drives to me.
Hard drive passwords are handled in the drive and it's part of the IDE
spec. Using this is quite risky, you can get locked out of your own
drive. Basically, at power on, the ONLY command that the drive will
recognize is the "enter password" command, and until that is done (with
the correct password), the drive isn't even detected by the bios at all
(it acts like a "dead" hard drive to all commands (including "identify
drive") except the enter password command, until the correct password is
entered).
That means, among other things, that you will never be able to use that
drive in any computer (laptop or desktop, internal or external) that
doesn't support hard drive passwords in it's bios.
Once the correct password is entered the drive behaves normally until
the next reset or power down. There is, for most practical purposes, no
way at all to bypass the password.
BillW50 wrote:
> How does the CMOS hard drive password work? I have a Gateway MX6124, btw
> if it matters. I mean if I set it and the laptop or the hard drive dies,
> what happens next? Can the hard drive be read installed in another
> laptop? Or do you need the password for it and that laptop must support
> passwords too? I am just curious how this all works as I might need this
> knowledge someday. ;-)
>
If the laptop dies, you can put the hard drive into another laptops THAT
SUPPORTS HARD DRIVE PASSWORDS, enter the CORRECT password and the drive
will "unlock".
Of course if the drive dies, then it's toast (but not because of the
password).
- Bobb - wrote:
>
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message
> news:48176075$0$6436$834e42db@reader.greatnowhere. com...
>> How does the CMOS hard drive password work? I have a Gateway MX6124,
>> btw if it matters. I mean if I set it and the laptop or the hard drive
>> dies, what happens next?
>
> Quick answer - nothing - you buy another drive.
>
>> Can the hard drive be read installed in another laptop?
> NO
>
>> Or do you need the password for it and that laptop must support
>> passwords too?
>
> The reason for password protecting a hard drive or the BIOS on a laptop
> is SECURITY. The cost of a drive or a pc is immaterial compared to the
> ability of someone else ( "the bad guys") to get at your data.
> Having said that, google " hdd password " and you'll find places like this:
> http://www.hddunlock.com/
>
>> I am just curious how this all works as I might need this knowledge
>> someday. ;-)
>>
>> --
>> Bill
>
Barry Watzman wrote:
> Hard drive passwords are handled in the drive and it's part of the IDE
> spec. Using this is quite risky, you can get locked out of your own
> drive. Basically, at power on, the ONLY command that the drive will
> recognize is the "enter password" command, and until that is done (with
> the correct password), the drive isn't even detected by the bios at all
> (it acts like a "dead" hard drive to all commands (including "identify
> drive") except the enter password command, until the correct password is
> entered).
>
> That means, among other things, that you will never be able to use that
> drive in any computer (laptop or desktop, internal or external) that
> doesn't support hard drive passwords in it's bios.
>
> Once the correct password is entered the drive behaves normally until
> the next reset or power down. There is, for most practical purposes, no
> way at all to bypass the password.
>
I have effectively mounted a "password protected" HD under Knoppix Live,
via a USB cable interface and copied all contents of the HD to another
physical drive. It is all a bunch of marketing huey.
"G.G.Willikers" <noone@athome.com> wrote in message
news:XpfSj.1064$To6.723@newssvr21.news.prodigy.net ...
> I have effectively mounted a "password protected" HD under Knoppix
> Live, via a USB cable interface and copied all contents of the HD to
> another physical drive. It is all a bunch of marketing huey.
I'll bet it wasnt an ATA password then. Virtually impossible to crack
unless you pay Rockbox or someone to clear it. People have been trying
to crack these for years, including mounting under Linux. It doesnt
work. Your drive may have had some sort of password software on it but
it wasnt an ATA one thats for sure.
I beg to differ with you. If you did what you claim, the drive was not
truly protected by the mechanism that we are talking about. That
mechanism is OS independent, works before any OS boots on the machine,
and the drive is totally invisible and inaccessible until the correct
password is entered.
You were dealing with a different protection mechanism than that which
we are discussing.
G.G.Willikers wrote:
> Barry Watzman wrote:
>> Hard drive passwords are handled in the drive and it's part of the IDE
>> spec. Using this is quite risky, you can get locked out of your own
>> drive. Basically, at power on, the ONLY command that the drive will
>> recognize is the "enter password" command, and until that is done
>> (with the correct password), the drive isn't even detected by the bios
>> at all (it acts like a "dead" hard drive to all commands (including
>> "identify drive") except the enter password command, until the correct
>> password is entered).
>>
>> That means, among other things, that you will never be able to use
>> that drive in any computer (laptop or desktop, internal or external)
>> that doesn't support hard drive passwords in it's bios.
>>
>> Once the correct password is entered the drive behaves normally until
>> the next reset or power down. There is, for most practical purposes,
>> no way at all to bypass the password.
>>
>
> I have effectively mounted a "password protected" HD under Knoppix Live,
> via a USB cable interface and copied all contents of the HD to another
> physical drive. It is all a bunch of marketing huey.
On Fri, 02 May 2008 19:09:40 -0400, Barry Watzman in part:
> I beg to differ with you. If you did what you claim, the drive was not
> truly protected by the mechanism that we are talking about. That
> mechanism is OS independent, works before any OS boots on the machine,
> and the drive is totally invisible and inaccessible until the correct
> password is entered.
Someone else said:
> >
> > I have effectively mounted a "password protected" HD under Knoppix Live,
> > via a USB cable interface and copied all contents of the HD to another
> > physical drive. It is all a bunch of marketing huey.
In fact, I thought that the problem was just the opposite:
If the drive is password protected than you can't access it through
USB at all since there is no way to enter the password.
(I suppose someone could make disk box with a USB interface that
allowed you to enter the password using an "out of band" method
to enter the password. There certainly are a bunch of external
boxes with hardware keys that are needed to encrypt/decrypt the
data on the disk.)
How does the CMOS hard drive password work? 
Linear Mode
