The following are BIOS and hard drive password release options if the password has been misplaced or forgotten.
Onscreen Password Prompt
If your computer is already powered off, follow the instructions below to return to the password prompt:
Your computer might display the message in several different methods depending on the computer and BIOS type that you have.
You see that three-gray bars on a white background are displayed. The second gray bar displays a message similar to (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Hard Drive Password Prompt
You see the message "Enter HDD Password" on a blue box with a black background similar to (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Enter HDD Password
Figure 3: HDD Password Invalidate
Figure 4: Password Error Code
You see a message "Harddisk Security SATA Port 0 Lock" similar to (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Harddisk Security
Figure 6: Input Password
Figure 7: System Disable
You see a message "Enter System Password" similar to (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Enter System Password
When contacting Dell Technical Support, you are asked to confirm the information below for security reasons:
Have the full error message along with your computer Service Tag information as this is required to create the release code.
Browse to the Dell Support contact website.
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Once Dell Support has provided the reset password, you enter this when prompted and then press Ctrl + Enter to complete the process. The reset hard drive password will automatically clear the hard drive password.
If the computer responds with the message Invalid Password, press the Enter key and continue to enter the same password three more times. After the fourth attempt the BIOS should accept the reset password, clear the password, and allow access to the hard drive.
Hard Drive Password
Dell computers with M.2 SATA drives support hard drive passwords with the SATA Operation BIOS setting Enabled. Should the SATA Operation BIOS setting be disabled (Figure 9), the computer will no longer have hard drive password support. This is working by design as the function is only supported with the SATA Operation Enabled.
Dell computers released in 2022 and later support NVMe BIOS passwords, however Dell does not support unlocking NVMe BIOS passwords. Reference article: Unlocking BIOS Hard Drive Passwords for NVMe Drives is Not Supported
Figure 9: Precision 7710 BIOS
External USB Keyboards Unable to Enter a Hard Drive Password at Boot on Latitude Laptops
When a hard drive password is configured within the Security section of the Latitude BIOS. An external USB keyboard may not be recognized at the password prompt when the laptop is booting. This issue has been reported when the laptop is either docked or when the keyboard is plugged into the external USB port on the Latitude E5440 and E7270. This may occur on other Latitude laptop models.
Configure the Fastboot Setting in the Laptop BIOS to Resolve the Issue
To resolve the issue, configure the Fastboot setting in the laptop BIOS to Thorough by following the steps below:
Modify or Remove Password
When clearing a hard drive password with Dell's Client Configuration Toolkit (CCTK). The computer prompts the user to confirm the change by selecting either "Modify" or "Ignore" (Figure 11):
Figure 11: CCTK HDD Password Removal Prompt
This physical presence requirement cannot be bypassed or automated. It is a security function and working as designed.
Check if a Hard Drive Password is Present
Customers have requested information about how you can tell if your computer has an HDD password present.
The guide below will take you through how to do this using the Dell Command Software installed on your Dell computer.
How to Open a Command Prompt:
Press the <Windows + X> keys together to open the Power User menu. Select Command Prompt with Admin from the list of options.
Dell Command | PowerShell Provider
PS C:\temp> (dir dellsmbios:\security\hddinfo | select -ExpandProperty currentvalue).PwdProtected No PS C:\temp>
Dell Command | Configure (CCTK) #1
C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\Command Configure\X86_64>cctk --hddinfo HDD Information in the current system. -------------------------------------------- Index: 0 HDD Name: Internal- SN: W3N0FRH7 Present: Yes Pwd-Protected: No Pending-Restart: No Admin-only-change: No -------------------------------------------
Dell Command | Configure (CCTK) #2:
(HDD Password is present)
C:\dell\DCC\X86_64>cctk --hddpwd= The HDD 0 is password protected. Provide the password. C:\dell\DCC\X86_64> (No HDD Password is present) C:\dell\DCC\x86_64>cctk --hddpwd= HDD password cannot be cleared as the HDD is not password protected. C:\dell\DCC\X86_64>
When checking across your install base, you can include the response from these tools into scripts to check for the presence of an HDD password.
Unable to Set Hard Drive Password
Dell Command | Configure fails to set a hard drive password on a Latitude laptop and receives the following error: "The option-related BIOS information is not available in this machine." The hard drive password can be set manually in the system BIOS settings of the laptop.
Download and update the latest version of the laptop BIOS from Dell Support / Drivers & Downloads. Select your Latitude laptop, then select BIOS from the Category drop-down menu.
Unable to Modify Hard Drive Password
A problem has been identified in Dell Command Configure 3.0 where the hard drive password is unable to be set or modified in the user interface. The Dell Command Configure 3.0 command-line interface can still be used to complete this function.
The update for the user interface password function requires an updated version of Dell Command Configure. Download the latest version of Dell Command Configure from the Dell Support Website for your computer, Drivers, and downloads, Systems management section.
Latitude laptops may experience Bluescreen errors when a Hard Drive Password is set within the BIOS.
Systems specific to Issue:
The best solution for this issue is to update the Latitude laptop BIOS to the most recent version from the Dell Support Website.
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