reset unkown HDD password

Sandeck · 06-09-2006, 06:43 PM

I aquirred a used Gateway laptop,but the hard drive is password protected and I want to reset it using Mepis,if possible.I am new to Mepis and am not sure how to go about it. I tried to use Qparted but got nowhere. I am a little bit more familiar with Xandros, but I thought I would try Mepis first. Hope someone can give me a hand.

spooon · 06-09-2006, 06:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandeck

I aquirred a used Gateway laptop,but the hard drive is password protected and I want to reset it using Mepis,if possible.I am new to Mepis and am not sure how to go about it. I tried to use Qparted but got nowhere. I am a little bit more familiar with Xandros, but I thought I would try Mepis first. Hope someone can give me a hand.

What do you mean by "the hard drive is password protected"? Do you mean that it is encrypted? Or that you have an OS like Windows on there and you don't know the passwords of the users? If it is the former, there is essentially nothing we can do to help you.

T1ckT0ck · 06-09-2006, 06:56 PM

"Acquired" huh? Please elaborate on the issue.

Emerson · 06-09-2006, 07:07 PM

Don't know about Gateway protection strength, I know IBM has hardware encryption on both - motherboard and HDD. If you think replacing old encrypted HDD will help you're dead wrong. Any new HDD will become encrypted (read: paperweight) too as soon you start the laptop.

Sandeck · 06-10-2006, 08:28 PM

As in garage sale. No warrenty,disks,paperwork,etc.
$30 bucks is no big deal. I can run Simply Mepis from the live CD so it's not a total loss. I haven't tried to save anything I've done on it yet, will try that later.
Is that enough elaboration for you?

spooon · 06-11-2006, 01:11 AM

Can you answer my previous question: What do you mean by "the hard drive is password protected"? Do you mean that you have an OS like Windows on there and you don't know the passwords of the users?

Please describe in detail.

Sandeck · 06-11-2006, 05:44 PM

Yes, the OS is Windows XP, and I don't have any idea on the passwords. The people I bought it from didn't either, but I have been looking at Linux a lot lately and it seemed a good place to try out some things.A live knoppix CD hangs at "checking SCSI" and doesn't go any further. Xandros doesn't get any further,either. Mepiis at least loads. I thought I would try here to get some ideas and maybe format the whole hard drive(20GB), and use it all for Linux.

spooon · 06-11-2006, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandeck

Yes, the OS is Windows XP, and I don't have any idea on the passwords. The people I bought it from didn't either, but I have been looking at Linux a lot lately and it seemed a good place to try out some things.A live knoppix CD hangs at "checking SCSI" and doesn't go any further. Xandros doesn't get any further,either. Mepiis at least loads. I thought I would try here to get some ideas and maybe format the whole hard drive(20GB), and use it all for Linux.

If Knoppix won't boot, it sounds like there might be some hardware problems; you might want to make sure everything is plugged in correctly and BIOS settings are good and stuff, or try different options in Knoppix. As for the Windows passwords, you can use the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor.

jayakrishnan · 06-12-2006, 03:12 AM

Try Disk Manager and try erasing the partitions. if the HDD is seagate , try www.seagate.com

Lotharster · 06-12-2006, 06:41 AM

You could try to boot knoppix with the boot option noscsi. Just enter

Code:

knoppix noscsi

at the boot prompt (press F2 and F3 to read about other boot options). I had the same problem. If the hard disk is IDE, disabling scsi should not be a problem.

fedora4002 · 06-12-2006, 01:01 PM

why do not just format and re-install os?