]I have a mini Dell laptop. It was working fine until the other day I went to start it up and It asked me to, Enter HDD Password. I figured it would be my user password and it was then it didn't take me to the Ubuntu main screen instead this is what it says,[ Minimal BASH- like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename.] and then it says grub>. Now I don't know much about computers I just want mine to go back to working again if someone can help me please.

this is not urgent for us. a title like that instead of a useful one is just rude.

Welcome to LQ, hope you find it useful here ... i sure have.
Future reference: Urgent implies someone is bleeding to death in a flaming inferno on the 68th floor of a skyscaper during a tornado ... sorry couldn't help it.
The point being, people will pay more attention if your subject is more like "HDD password not user, locked out, help"

THe only thing I can think of as being a HDD password, is a security setting in the BIOS. I could be wrong, But it wouldn't hurt to check. heres how:
1.) When you start up press the bios or setup key (Usually F2,TAB, or DEL)
2.) This will bring up a menu, Look for anything that says security or password setting
3.) Find an option that says PASSWORD [enabled] and change the value to disabled (Assuming it is set)

If this is not the problem, I am sure someone with more experience the I, Will come up with an answer.

Good luck.


EDIT: If your BIOS was altered, There may be a password on it as well as the drive. So you may not be able to access the BIOS if that is the case.

2 members found this post helpful.

Urgent is of NO HELP to us
Please rename the thread to something descriptive of your problem

like "hard drive password "
or
" i see GRUB> "

Sorry for that I didn't really know what to put I just need help trying to get my laptop working again.

Help isn't much to go on either lol.



You may want to try a title like Password on boot-Dell-help. Sorry that your getting so much flack on the title, But it really has to be descriptive for anyone to want to read it, such things as 'help' 'urgent' 'need help' 'problem' are not going to bring in people who know what to do. Everyone on this forum is here because they want to be ... And they all have different skills and know-how, Putting a summary of what your issue is ensures that you get the specific help you need.

Can you access the BIOS? and is it set up to have password on boot? I listed the steps above.

Good luck

"Help!"??? Seriously??

ok i think that "Tasha21" is getting the point

on to fixing

Did YOU format and set this computer up or did someone else ?
because of this
i think there was put inplace a boot encryption password
whole drive encryption
or

Just the normal everyday boot password .

So did you add this non standard option ?
the root password ? maybe ?

the "GRUB> " menu is not good

is ms windows7 also installed ?
if it is then that might explain this

John VV no ms windows 7 is not installed. The software is UBUNTU 7.10

did you install the very old Ubutu 7 back in 2007 ????
you do know that support for 7.04 ended on "2008-10-19"
and support for 7.10 ended on "2009-04-18"
Ubuntu 11.04 is the current


you might also want to read this
"Please READ this before posting!"
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...osting-356388/
and read the TWO links in that post .
"Please Read: Before Creating a New Thread/Posting in this Forum and all other Forums!"
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-forum-103564/

there are an infinite number of thread titles that are useless. Let me give a few:
- not working
- what to do next
- totally lost
- this thing doesn't work
- anybody have any idea what's wrong
...

filtering "help" or "urgent" is not the solution!
For example, valid thread titles could be:
- help menu crashes application
- how to highlight urgent emails in Thunderbird?

I've never seen a thread title just "help" or "urgent"

We could however implement a filter that tries to rate the quality of the thread title (number of words, number of words in the dictionary, presence of a word that matches a known package name or command name, etc ..., presence of "bad words" such as help or urgent). Then if the rating is too low, tell the poster that the post will only be visible 4 hours later if the title quality is not improved.

Now, that would take some coding, does anyone have time to dedicate to this???

This is *NOT* the place for this en masse. Whatever the title of it, this is a thread started by a member who needs help. That is what this thread is for, not continually goading them or users in general about thread titles. In the first instance a user needs to be made aware of issues like this, but once that is done: MOVE ON.