SPONSORED LINKS
>> Date: Mon, 13 Mar 95 09:10:28 EST >> From: "Randall King" <rjking@fosters.roc.servtech.com> >>To: tp750@CS.UTK.EDU >> Subject: Hard Drive password >> Hello all, >> How about this. What if you have a password set up on the Hard Drive >> itself? Does anyone know how to get that off if you don't have the >> password? Utilize the sledge hammer method? :) >> >> Randall >According to IBM, if you forget the password on a hard drive, it's >time to buy a new hard drive. There is no way to override it. >-- >Adam Lee Wilkinson >Portable Computing Technology Specialist >Ford Motor Co. - Marketing & Sales Systems >awilkin1@ren0010.so.ford.com This seems pretty ridiculous that a standard off-the-shelf 2.5" HD would be rendered useless by forgetting the password. Granted that the much-discussed IBM custom case provides makes it a proprietary item, but the actual drive is an OEM item. Does anyone know what the password does to lock the disk or where it is stored? I don't think it encrypts the contents of the disk. It must record the password on the disk itself. If so, you should at minimum, be able to use a disk utility to reformat the drive on another machine by taking the HD out of the case. And if we could determine where the password was stored, it might be feasible to selectively zero this information out. I don't know. I'm just speculating here, but does anyone else agree that forgetting your HD password shouldn't require you to toss the disk in the trashcan (as IBM suggests)? There has to be a way to hack it -- SOMEBODY inside IBM designed this security system, so there HAS to be information somewhere on how this thing works. In large organizations that have a large number of ThinkPads, IBM has a responsibility to give us the information we need to manage the resources we paid good money to purchase. Right now my group only has a small It hasn't happened to us yet, but what if an employee becomes disgruntled and leaves the company without telling us his password? What if an employee dies in a car wreck? Do we have to trash an entire 500Mb drive with potentially important information on it? I think not. Does anyone else have any information on this? Grumble, grumble, grumble. Ted Phillips phillipst@bah.com