well i got a used dell laptop from a friend with a hdd password ("drake") i wanted to remove it so i went in to the bios fond hdd password it asked for my pass so i entered drake the for the new pass word i entered it blank and the same for the next time it asked but when i rebooted i still asked for the password so i tryed just pressing "enter" that did not work so i tryed drake still did not work that was a week ago still have not got it working i have a 2.5" ide to usb hdd case that i am using to connect my laptop hdd to my desktop i was going to try thishttp://www.rockbox.org/lock.html but i dont know how to install it i am using slackware 13.1

i consider my self to be a competent Linux user i have Ben using it for a year or to but i do OK switched to Slackware to learn more about Linux

ty for any help

I don't know if it's possible with your laptop or not, but I would think pulling the CMOS chip for a few minutes would clear any passwords set in the BIOS. It's worked for me in the few instances I've needed it.

i tryed that but the the password is saved on the hard drive and it stops it for spinning if it is not entered so i cant format it from a live cd or any thing

Which is probably a good thing.
That is a patch against the kernel source tree. It updates a driver for a specific piece of hardware. Even if you did have such, that patch is against the 2.4 kernel, and certainly doesn't fit against current (2.6) kernels.
Keep looking - I've seen utilities that purport to unlock hard-drives - even hdparm now offers to do it IIRC.

You'd think a "competent Linux user" would know how to use punctuation also. just sayin'.

i gave up and got a new hard drive. i am only out $32.93 from eBay tho