hard drive

[millerxxx]

have toshiba laptop
was using xp
lost password
got this message
hard drive is blocked
can it be unlocked
tried recovery disc
nothing happened
thanks

[ChuckFickens]

If it's the hard drive that has been password protected through the BIOS then you may well be stuffed.

Also if it is the hard drive password that's been setup in the bios then you'll probably find putting a new hard drive into the laptop wouldn't help as the bios would just apply the password to the new disk as soon as you switch on the laptop.

To really be able to answer this we could do with some more details like the exact model of laptop and exactly when the password prompt comes up and what it says.

[SlackAlice]

ChuckFickens

If the laptop was switched off and the battery removed, wouldn't removing the CMOS battery clear any bios password?

just being nosey, apologies for jumping in to this thread ☺

[ChuckFickens]

It's not 100% clear exactly what the OP is asking about, but a hard drive password is not the same as a BIOS password. a hard drive password is to stop anyone accessing data on the hard drive even if it was removed from the computer all together, this type of password can even stop the drive being formatted in another computer as the lock is built onto the controller on the drive.

Generally if you set a hard drive password and forget it you're stuffed.

But as ever, all computers are different and with only snippets of information to go on it a bit hard to provide reliable answers.

[SlackAlice]

Ah!! ok thanks for the prompt reply.

Something else learnt for a rainy day ☺