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HDD password on inspiron mini 1010
I got a dell inspiron mini 1010 but the guy who gave it to me went to tour the world and now i have a laptop with a password on the hdd and i have no clue on what to do! I got the bios password but the HDD password is still there and i'm stuck! Can someone offer me some advice on what to do? I am thinking about replacing the hdd. Would this password problem vanish?
DELL-Royan S
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January 25th, 2012 02:00
Hi Zenix12,
Welcome to the Community. You will need to call Dell Technical Support in your region, and verify the original system owner details, for them to give you the password. If you are out of warranty there would be a charge for this.
Thank you
Royan
ejn63
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January 25th, 2012 04:00
If the hard drive is password-protected and you can't get the password, it'll cost you more to send the drive out to a recovery service to have it removed than it will to simply replace the drive with a new one.
zenix12
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January 25th, 2012 08:00
I can replace it myself but will replacing the drive be a success?
ejn63
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January 25th, 2012 09:00
As long as you remove the BIOS hard drive password from the system, it should be fine.
zenix12
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January 25th, 2012 09:00
so in other words.. dell is the only one who can access it. I tried to read the drive but it's locked so there is no hope for me there.
ejn63
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January 25th, 2012 09:00
The actual password is stored on the drive itself - once it's there, if you lose it, the only way to remove it is to have the drive processed by a data recovery service.
The password is stored in a user-inaccessible section of the hard drive.
zenix12
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January 25th, 2012 09:00
so even though I replace the hdd, that password on startup will still be there?