Removing HDD password?

[starship_troopers]

Hi guys, I have a customer who has forgotten their HDD password on a toshiba laptop. i know full well they are the owners and such, and dont want to actually wipe the drive as they dont have a recovery disc.

is there any way possible to remove a HDD password without actually knowing it? lol.

 

thanks guys.

[starship_troopers]

just got off the phone and they guessed the PW correctly. but thinking back on this post, i know its risky to tell someone how to crack stuff like that. but if you can do this just give me a yes, its easy, or yes its hard. lol.

[mudmanc4]

Depending on what you mean by HDD password , it can go either way. 

 if this is a BIOS pass, or an authentications pass {some softwares produce an encrypted drive} that can only be un encrypted with the password. On startup. These can be very difficult. 

 

Regular lost windows {any breed} passwords can easily be 'repaired' with the proper knowledge. 

 

So your question is quite more complex than at first glance

 

On another note - again depending on what softwares this person has used, the HDD pass word could very well be held on the HDD chip itself - which mean honestly, many or most of the time forget it without the pass, or a real math processor to take the hash and solve the equation. Did i say too much ? 

[dn0]

I have a friend that's an auctioneer who bought out a business a few years ago.

I cracked several windows laptop passwords very easily with a bootable disk that I downloaded.

But I cannot remember what it was called, and nothing I am seeing on Google rings a bell.

But it was not tough, hope that helps... I am seeing "Cain and Able" often while searching, tho...

[starship_troopers]

windows passwords are simple. did you know in windows 7 you can crack a users password (even admins or anyone really) by changing the ease of access button on the log on screen to open command prompt? lol. "net user" command is very powerful. in xp, it of course is even easier.

 

 

 

but no, im thinking of a HDD password. like if you pull the CMOS battery some passwords can be reset, or whatever. but on a HDD/SDD password the drive wont spin up and load an OS until you input the correct passcode.  i know wiping a drive completely can fix that issue. hell even running, oh lets say, Ubuntu on a Live CD can bypass that. but i wondered if there is just a way to remove it without actually needing to know it.

 

like i said, its not needed anymore, but its still a question im wondering. but im also wondering if its actually safe to put the answer (in detail anyway) in this topic as someone might stumble upon it looking to do some immoral things lol.

[mudmanc4]

Many times you cannot wipe the drive without the password. because it's not stored on the platter but on the drive board itself. 

 

Though there are a few small programs out there that will allow you to boot from cd /usb and deal with this. At the same time , doing this sometimes you'll find the directory is no longer valid due to boot loader changes during the password removal, in that manner of speaking. At this point the remaining readable data can be cloned in several different manners.