stupid HDD passwords.. :P

[x88x]

Ok, for background, I recently replaced the HDD in my Thinkpad with an SSD. I had previously had it set up with a password to unlock the HDD, but it required a user-level password to actually use it, and a manager-level password to change anything. Of course, since the user-level was the only one I ever used, I have completely forgotten what the manager-level password was...and that's the one that I need to remove it.

So, my question. I don't need any data off the drive, I just want to blow the whole thing away and start from scratch. Unfortunately, because of the password lock, I cannot actually access it. It does, however, appear as a device in Linux, though I cannot do anything to it because of the lock. I feel like I should be able to blow it away since Linux has direct device-level control, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how.

Any ideas?

[diluzio91]

theres always degaussing...

[billygoat333]

check out xboxscene.com I believe it is. there is a wealth of info over there on how to unlock hdds. in fact there is a company that you pay like ~20 bucks for and they will unlock it for you.

EDIT: here is the company that does the hdd unlock service. they have a list of the drives they support here.

[Luke122]

I wonder if DBAN would help..?

[x88x]

Hmm, actually it might; I'll have to try that.

[XcOM]

iirc think pads put the security on the laptop bios too, if the HDD has changed it requires the manager password to let you do anything to the new hdd.

On a side note, i have some top notch HDD security, it creates a 5mb partition at the beginning of the drive, it then installs a boot loader, the rest of the drive is then encrypted, the system bios (no matter what system you put it into) will only see it as a 5mb drive, the boot loader asks for a password, if correct then loads its own bios and loads the rest of the drive,

even dban can't see it as the bios thinks its just a 5mb drive.

it only works on certain drives though as it installs the password manager and encryption key onto the firmware