HDD-0 Password required after replacing HDD

@neutraltone  I've never used the software in the BIOS to erase a drive, but Samsung SSDs do not ship with a password enabled.  So either that BIOS function somehow caused a password to be set, or else that Samsung SSD wasn't actually brand new, or was a counterfeit of some kind.  One thing you could try is performing a PSID Revert on the Samsung SSD, which also completely erases the drive and removes any encryption or passwords.  This requires you to enter the PSID of the drive itself, which should be printed somewhere on the SSD itself.

Thanks @jphughan, I believe it was the Dell utility in the UEFI which set the password because I was not prompted to input a password until after I used the Dell utility (Under "Maintenance -> Data Wipe" in the UEFI).

Further investigation in the UEFI security settings revealed that there is a password set for HDD-0 (this can be found under "Security -> Internal HDD-0 Password"). What puzzles me is I have never set this password, is this something that Dell could have set prior to the laptop leaving the factory?

Thanks for your help, I will look into performing a PSID Revert, something that I haven't done before but I can't imagine being too difficult.

@neutraltone  The password is set in the drive's firmware, so it couldn't be set from the factory.  And even if the drive that shipped from the factory had a password on it, that would follow the drive, so if you installed a drive that didn't have a password, you wouldn't see that prompt anymore.  And the reverse is also true, i.e. if you have a drive with no password and then install a drive that had a password set somewhere else, then you'll start seeing a password prompt all of a sudden.

@jphughan Thanks. That's exactly how I thought it worked but it confused me that the drive went from working to requesting a password after using the maintenance tool in the UEFI.

I will attempt a PSID revert on the drive and see if that works. Fingers crossed that's all that will be required and I can just install windows on the drive without using Dell's maintenance tool this time!

It's been a while but I've just recently been able to try the PSID revert, but as the drive now has a password set on it no machine is able to read the disk to do the PSID revert. The only thing the tools can see is the name of the drive.

Slightly baffling, as the brand new drive didn't not have a password set on it until I ran the UEFI date wipe tool I can only assume that it was this tool which set the password. Perhaps as a security feature to prevent drive swaps on stolen laptops or maybe a revenue stream for Dell when you try to repair your laptop yourself.

I guess my only option is to call dell customer support and purchase a support package to see if they can unlock my new drive, otherwise this laptop has just cost me £60 by rendering a new drive useless.

tenho exatamente mesmo problema, troquei meu hd por um ssd e começou a pedir senha, não consegui desbloquear.

I’m not sure if this will help, but I got in touch with Samsung who suggested that I plug the SSD into a PC via SATA directly into the motherboard and then run the PSID revert. I never tried connecting directly to the motherboard so I can’t tell you if that solution works as I’d returned the SSD before I received the reply. I hope this helps!