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Comment:
My laptop asks for a Built-in HDD password everytime I boot it up. This happens after the toshiba splash screen. Is there any way to recover the data from the disk such as flashing BIOS, resetting cmos, plugging it into a pc, etc?
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Will it boot on a floppy?
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If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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Is this a BIOS password you're referring to or a Windows login password? Did the password prompt just start happening? A little more detail would be good..
Life is more painless for those who are brainless.
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Jennifer, some laptops have passwords on the hard drive, believe it or not. And I have never heard of a way to get around it. It's a theft deterrent that doesn't make theft more difficult, but it does frustrate the thief.
Not that Blast is a thief. He probably got ripped off by a Ebay purchase.Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
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Actually I guess it's more of a data protection device than a theft deterrent.
Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
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Hi ham30,
Yeah you're right. We've been through this before. No obvious way around.
The theft issue. As you say, not much of a dterent. Better to get a cable and lock it to a water pipe or German Shepard.
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If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.M2
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lol i'm no thief...I've had this laptop for about 3 years now and I've never had this problem before. The computer seemed to be getting slower and slower with time so maybe that was a sign of the impending HD failure.
So am I completely screwed then? I have all my pictures on the drive and I really really would like to recover them, without having to pay 1k for data recovery.
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I have never done this but I would try and slave this on a desktop, run a copy of KNOPPIX and then mount that drive and copy off what I need ?
Keep the old stuff running
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There are inexpensive adapters that let you connect laptop drives to desktops. There are also file recovery programs available to help with getting your data, but they only work if the drive is not completely dead.
You might also try downloading a diagnostic from the hard drive manufacturer's web site.
I don't understand why it asked for a password.
Do yourself a favor BACKUP!
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Well, Laptops have that annoying protection.
I bought a laptop that someone told me had a bios password on it, and then after working with it, found out that it was a hard-drive password. Renders the drive useless.
I have and IBM Thinkpad, and there can be a bios-password, supervisor password, and hard drive password, (talk about problem if one is forgotten), anyway, I searched around IBM's website, and they said that if the Hard drive password is forgoten, then its basically getting a new one, as they are built to be unrecoverable/unresettable.
on the other hand, if you set a bios or supervisor password, and you forget it, and only have one set, or forgot both, IBM says that the Motherboard has to be reset.
I would consider the option of running the laptop hard drive through a IDE convertor to a desktop. I haven't done this yet, as I didn't think it was worth it. But they are like $3-5 on ebay. they are all over the place.
Hope that helps!
Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.
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bit mis-representation, when I said that the motherboard has to be reset, i meant that it needed to be replaced.
Please respond after you have solved your problem to notify who helped you and what solved the problem. Both sides benefit when you do.
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