Toshiba HDD/SATA password

ekelley

ekelley

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OK so I got a bad situation going on. I got a client who has an older Toshiba Satellite L645.
I guess this is a laptop for a small repair shop it has his invoice and accounting files. He had a employee that he let go and he said hes pretty sure he did something on his laptop and then latter that day he booted it up and it asked for a bios password. I got the bios password removed. But now I get a blue screen with a Enter HDD/SSD Password.
I went into the bios and under Security Where it says HDD/SSD Password Status: Registered
HDD/SSD Password Mode: User Only.

I have looked and looked with no way to resolve this issue. I have seen allot of people on the forums with the same issue but no resolution listed. I cannot boot into windows. I have tried plugging the drive into another system and it cannot read it.

I told the client this might be a long shot and the data might be gone! I did check the system has no warranty not sure if Toshiba will do anything about it anyways.

I have thought of updating the bios with the drive out and hope that works but I don't think it will.

Any Suggestions at all???

Thanks
Eric
 
Someone more versed in HDD data recovery can chime in here but as I understand it, HDD passwords are stored on the HDD in a reserved space. With a hex editor, and if you know what you are looking for, the password can be retrieved allowing access to the drive. In response to your question, no - plugging the drive into another system or updating bios will not help because the password data is on the drive itself.

I think there is a person on this forums that does data recovery and they should be able to do it.

Think its a good time to sell them on an automated online backup solution for thier files!
 
Last edited:
Toshiba will not talk to you if it's out of warranty. HDD password locks are located on the HD itself. You said you hooked it up to another machine? Did you try using something like R-Studio to scan the drive and see if it can find files? I don't know for sure but I think that the password is just that, a password. And not an encryption process.

I did a quick search and found this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OFUsEBLHU
 
There used to be some software that you could unencrypt the password from the error code I do believe. Im sorry, Dont remember now but will keep looking. Did you see this video? I dont know about hotswapping the drive. That could be a problem. But seems to work for this person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OFUsEBLHU

Call toshiba would be my best guess. Perhaps they have a procedure for this and a universal password? WOrth a chance...

Oh, Tell the customer to take the employee to court too!


****** Edit ********

Did you see this ----> http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html

******************

coffee
coffee
 
Last edited:
Mokester said:
Think its a good time to sell them on an automated online backup solution for thier files!
Click to expand...
This is my first time dealing with this client.


markverhyden said:
Toshiba will not talk to you if it's out of warranty. HDD password locks are located on the HD itself. You said you hooked it up to another machine? Did you try using something like R-Studio to scan the drive and see if it can find files? I don't know for sure but I think that the password is just that, a password. And not an encryption process.

I did a quick search and found this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OFUsEBLHU
Click to expand...

I did try that earlier and it didn't work. I tried it a few times :)

coffee said:
There used to be some software that you could unencrypt the password from the error code I do believe. Im sorry, Dont remember now but will keep looking. Did you see this video? I dont know about hotswapping the drive. That could be a problem. But seems to work for this person:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2OFUsEBLHU

Call toshiba would be my best guess. Perhaps they have a procedure for this and a universal password? WOrth a chance...

Oh, Tell the customer to take the employee to court too!


****** Edit ********

Did you see this ----> http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html

******************

coffee
coffee
Click to expand...

I did not see that one! I will look into it!!
I did make the suggestion to the client to talk to the old employee try to get him to give the password and be prepared to take him to court if needed because this could be costly.

markverhyden said:
Look at this as well.

http://www.hddunlock.com/
Click to expand...

I did see that as an option on a post when I first searched. If I read the site right the system need to boot. It will not work if you use usb adapters or anything.

Currently with the HDD in the system it will not boot past that screen no matter what.

Thanks for all the suggestions!! Let me know if anyone has anymore ideas!
 
Take it to a data recovery company; they can remove it for a reasonable cost. Then suggest they sue the employee to recover those costs, and yours.
 
Oh I didn't doubt that. Just meant that once its said and done, that is the easiest sale of backup solutions you will ever have! ;)
 
ekelley said:
I did see that as an option on a post when I first searched. If I read the site right the system need to boot. It will not work if you use usb adapters or anything.

Currently with the HDD in the system it will not boot past that screen no matter what.

Thanks for all the suggestions!! Let me know if anyone has anymore ideas!
Click to expand...

Yep, you are right. Has to be a native interface. And I also noticed that one will wipe the drive but they did mention this.

http://www.hdd-tools.com/products/rrs/howto/

I would also recommend, as mentioned, having the EU pursue legal action. But it's going to be tough to win if no one witness the former employee doing the changes. I'm not aware of BIOS doing any logging. Maybe hdparm might produce some information.
 
Last edited:
The reseller price is $280 unless it there is a major surprise. We would need some sort of proof of ownership or a waiver signed giving us permission to remove the password.
 
Thank you all for the information and suggestions!!
I think a reseller program for data recovery is a good idea! I will get with you and discuss that sometime!

The resolution was simple the owner convinced the old employee to give up the password. We now have it and got the system running.
 
ekelley said:
Thank you all for the information and suggestions!!
I think a reseller program for data recovery is a good idea! I will get with you and discuss that sometime!

The resolution was simple the owner convinced the old employee to give up the password. We now have it and got the system running.
Click to expand...
Yes, the best way to get by a password is to simply ask for it.
 
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