Computers & Networking

[japper]

I am posting this question for a friend who bought a new Toshiba laptop from one of the Best Buy stores within the past year and also purchased the extended warranty for it at that time. 

A few months ago, a hard drive password screen began to appear upon power up which makes it impossible to boot the laptop as she did not enable or set this password.

She took it to the Geek Squad and they told her that this was not covered by her extended warranty because it is a software problem which according to them is not typically covered by the warranty. Because the Geek Squad refused to remedy the situation, she now has a $850 Toshiba paper weight...

What are her options of getting this fixed? She does not want the hard drive wiped as it contains pictures of her son's wedding.

Please advise

Thanks

[RedWyv3 Best Buy Employee]

Is this password occuring immediately, before Windows loads, or after Windows loads? In other words, can she see a profile she has to enter a password on, or is it more of a black and white one that appears immediately upon boot?

[RedWyv3 Best Buy Employee]

Oh yes, and the model number, if you could. That will really help on finding your solution. You can find this on the bottom sticker of the machine.

[jrocks94]

Restart computer/at Boot Screen Press the F2, F8 or F12 button that takes you to the Password screen and delete any information there. Check your work. Save your changes. Restart and it should be OK.

Sounds like your friend bought a reboxed or previously used rig. At purchase my Toshiba Satellite L505 and the L655 default with no password.

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

Sounds like it has the bios password issue that a lot of Toshiba's did. Not a "previously used rig"

[Pyrex]

Please tell us more about the password issue, CrystalWOW.

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

Sure. Toshiba laptops about 2 years ago started pouring in with auto set bios passwords that the customer had never set/messed with. Toshiba released some fixes in case it hadn't happened yet and offered to fix it for those that had gotten locked out already. Problem solved. Until a couple years down the line, where it started happening again. I'm not sure if they released fixes again for it. This line:

A few months ago, a hard drive password screen began to appear upon power up which makes it impossible to boot the laptop as she did not enable or set this password.

leads me to believe that it isn't a windows password and since it was purchased earlier this year and just started having the issue, it wasn't there when the OP's friend bought it it sounds like. Though if they think a hard drive "wipe" or a restore would fix it, it may be something else entirely. The other thing it could be would be some sort of encrypted drive or something but in general, that would be something the user would have had to have set up, so it doesn't just happen, unless they just forgot the password to it.

[japper]

Thank you for the responses. For some reason, the reply that I posted on here last night doesn't appear...

The laptop is a Toshiba D505L S5965.

This is not a Windows 7 or Bios set up password, it is a hard drive password which is embedded on the

firmware on board the ATA Fujitsu hard drive (model MJA2320BH).

The screen appears upon boot up which requires a password for the hard drive. I have the option to go into

Bios by pressing F2 which allows me to navigate around in the BIOS and to the Security screen. In that Security screen there is an option to clear the BIOS, Admin, & hard drive passwords but I need to have the current hard drive password in order to change it. Upon Boot up I can also press F8 or F12 but these take me directly to the hard drive password request screen.

So far I have tried the following:

I placed the hard drive into a USB to SATA adapter and connected it to another computer. Even though the USB device was recognized, the hard drive was not.

 I then connected the hard drive to older desktop system and booted to DOS but was not able to see the hard drive. I then ran the utility ATAPWD in an attempt to clear the password, but this did not see any ATA hard drives connected to the system.

My only option may be to put a different hard drive in there and tell her that her son's wedding pictures are lost.

I did entertain the idea of finding an identical drive and swapping the control boards in an attempt to recover her data but this runs the risk of ending up with two bad hard drives.

I see that there are people out there advertising that they can remove the the password but I am not sure if they are guaranteed to save the data or not.

Also I have read that the manufacturer has a master password but this most likely is not published.

So that it the dilemma. Any ideas?

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

ATAPWD and the adapter wold be the only two options that I can personally think of. Someone more technical may be able to assist. Check your PM's as well by clicking on the little envelope, top right.

[japper]

I went to the Toshiba site and entered the laptop part number and serial number and it stated that the laptop was purchased on July 5th, 2010 and that he waranty was now expired. My friend told me that she purchased the Black tie waranty from best Buy.

Does anyone know the typical duration of a "Black Tie Waranty" from best Buy?

Also, does this waranty cover the recovery of locked hard drive passwords?