Cannot access hard drive [XP Pro locked drive)

Hi:

We are beginning to wonder about the millions of computers our there why am I always encountering problems.

Always used latest operating system. Now Windows XP Pro.
Latest Word Processing programs etc. Now Microsoft Office 2003.
Computer is (no brand name) Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.0 Ghz.
All assessories - DVD burner drive/ CD burner drive/ the old 3 1/2 floppy/
Sound/ USB ports/ Fast Lan DSL/ and Ultra Fast DSL service etc.

******************************************************

And here has been my standard setup since the days of the Apple IIe.
Somewhere around 1984 !
(Dropped Apple when they went to the Mac, needed color and the Mac had none at the time).

Drive C hard drive (now 80 G)for OS and Programs.
Drive F hard drive (now 40 G) for data storage.
All documents, all tax records, everything including all e-mails via Outlook Express stored as .eml files.

Then today we boot up.
Screen surveys drives etc.
Then stops and a message in red shows up:

"HDD locked - Use Pass Word (5 left) "

I have since day one never used a password to access my computer.
So we try our OE e-mail pass word - message changed to (4 left).
We used our other OE password - message changed to (3 left).

Then we cut the power.
Disconnected drive C and connected a known good hard drive (with
OS etc installed). Same message.

Cut the power.
Disconnected drive F and rebooted only drive C.
All OK !

Shut down.
Reconnected the original drive C.
Did not reconnect drive F.
All Ok.

Except we have a locked drive F. All data stored on it not accessable.

Any suggestions on how we can reactivate that drive F or at least
recover the data ?

I'm Irish and we can tell you right off - we don't have no Luck !

Thanks

 

Hi jb,

I've modified your thread title to indicate that this problem seems to be a XP Pro issue, not a hardware problem.

Google this issue because this is a password problem and this site has strict rules about helping to crack passwords.

Hopefully someone else has more ideas on this.

Regards - Charles

 

Your best choice as far as I know, is to contact the hdd manufacture, you will have to prove ownership. They might be able to help you recover the data. Some hdds with passwords can not be salvage at all, with others the hdd can be reused but the data will be gone.

There are also some Companys on web that indicate they can unlock some hdd's after you prove ownership of hdd.

There is no way around the password, even changing the circuit board will not help. From what I understand the password is put into the firmware and on the platter of hdd.

 

Hi jb,

seems like someone has password protected your hard disk & that program is asking you to enter the password before the system would even boot.

I wonder if it could be some sort of virus?

 

Yes, a strange one for sure. I won't tell you how (adherence to rules) but you may find some relief if you can log on as system.

 

What Make/Model of hdd with password ?

Only if that hdd does indeed have password protection firmware, read below.
Have never had a passworded hdd but (remember reading some place) there must be software installed that will request the password and send it to the hdd. If the program is missing ,as with the 2nd OS hdd, or corrupt (with a virus ?) on the origninal hdd , the null password will not be sent to the hdd firmware and the access will fail. I think a power off will reset the password counter.

Go to the hdd manufacture web site and install the password program for your model of hdd.