Locked out of HDD

[Ric Moore]

On Sun, 2011-05-29 at 12:55 +0530, Pritam Baral wrote: 
> As I said, I used hdparm [--security-set-pass] to set the password.
> 
> Its a Toshiba MK325GSX. It came with the laptop.
> 
> Since I know the password, I can perform a SECURITY_ERASE on it, but
> if only i can boot up my system!
> 
> Yes, I have searched the net. But all i can find are forgotten
> password cases, not my case.
> 
> Thanx. . .
> 
> On 5/29/11, Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au> wrote:
> > On 29/05/11 15:59, Pritam Baral wrote:
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> In short:
> >> My hdd is locked, but my bios doesnt let me unlock it, cant boot from
> >> live-iso because it gets stuck at the poimt of identifying hdd. Any
> >> way of passing a boot parameter to unlock the hdd first?
> >>
> >> In detail:
> >> Firstly, this is not one of those situations where one forgets their
> >> hdd password. I know my password, I just cant unlock it.
> >>
> >> My hdd supports the Security Mode Feature Set, though it was not
> >> enabled before. My bios doesn't let me set the hdd password.
> >
> >
> > If your BIOS doesn't allow you to set the password, how then did you set it?
> >
> >
> >>   Somewhere
> >> on another forum
> >
> >
> > Ah, the forums.... great experts lurk in them there forums......

Wow, that's one feature I'll be sure not to try. If it was set in the
bios, you could just reset that. It sounds like it's hosed for good. You
can't mount it with a rescue CD and copy the important stuff off to your
USB stick for backup and just reformat the drive? Wow... you might have
to go back to that forum and ask the person who recommended that
procedure what to do. I've never heard of doing that. But, Linux will
dutifully do whatever you tell it to do. 

I just had a go at reading the hdparm manpage. That "security" feature
has a zillion warnings about it being experimental and may not work with
all kernels, etc. But, the author's email address is there...
mlord at pobox.com

You might want to email him about it. Ric


-- 
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256