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1564 BIOS HDD Master Password
Greetings from Texas,
My Wife passed a couple of weeks ago and to prevent any lose of her information on her laptop I placed a BIOS HDD Password and entered it twice to insure it was done correctly. Now that password will not allow me to restart her computer. I also wrote it down to protect my memory. My question is, "did Dell enter a master password for situations such as this? Or is there a method to remove this password so I may regain use of her computer?"
TIA, CU L8R,
LxCc
ejn63
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May 25th, 2012 13:00
The answer is no - there is no master password in place. Unfortunately, even if you remove the BIOS hard drive password - which you CAN do using the system master password - it won't remove the hard drive password. The only way to do that is to send the drive to a data recovery service that can use a specialized tool to remove the password. That will cost about $100 to have done.
LxCc
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May 25th, 2012 13:00
ejn63,
Thank you for this info, just hoping or there was a method to regain the high ground on this issue, will be more observant in the future. There may just be a location in my area that can do this.
Also thank you for this rapid response it was not expected this quickly,
LxCc
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June 29th, 2012 07:00
enj63,
This is only a partial answer on this issue, yet is very helpful, #1 the rapid reply was very fast, #2 let us know about the possibility of a Master password.
LxCc
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June 29th, 2012 07:00
ejn63,
Have had a couple of data recovery people attempt to recover my Wife's system, not any good. Do you have the name or location that I may talk with? Also may I suggest advice on this feature be better published so some in my situation can know to be very cautious in using without full knowledge. My main problem is I do have the password yet it will not work.
ejn63
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June 29th, 2012 07:00
Try Nortek
www.nortek.on.ca
or DriveSavers
www.drivesavers.com
LxCc
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June 29th, 2012 08:00
wilks7,
Yes, I have attempted just about all that I have been able to think could have been the problem. Including fingers being shifted to the incorrect keys, one hand, then the other and then both. Nothing works . . not even me.
wilks7
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June 29th, 2012 08:00
have you tried the password with caps??....maybe the caps lock was on when the password was set?
LxCc
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June 29th, 2012 08:00
Presently checking out those two links given by 'enj63' and will be back after some more looking and asking questions before using any recovery company.
LxCc
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August 12th, 2012 10:00
Excuse me for being so late in getting back, both claimed neither company has the expertise nor equipment to do this recovery. They also checked with their engineers, as they called them, NO idea as to how to do this.
All locations found on the web reference a service tag ID that is NOT on my laptop nor even on the HD. Yes, I do know how to access the internal parts of the computers as I am a Journeyman Electronic Techy with over 60 years experience, even back to the mini glass tubes, even before that. Have worked with Data General 19" Main Frame 64bit computers using teletypes as input devices through early desktops to modern day 32bit and 64bit laptops and desktops with Win7 Home Premium 64bit/32bit Win7 Ultimate O/Ss.
It just this DUMMY wanted to protect the system of my Wife's laptop from access when she had passed suddenly in her sleep. All of the happenings and running arounds I quickly placed a HDD password under the Security Tab in the BIOS and have it written down, yet it still will not work even with many variations of possibilities.
I purchased my computers from DELL yet they will not give me any suppport as I did not purchase a maintenance contract with them.
Any NEW ideas?
ejn63
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August 12th, 2012 10:00
It's a bit surprising to hear than neither Drive Savers nor Nortek could help -- if they can't, you're out of luck and out of options, unfortunately.