I have a hard drive issue that’s been bugging me for over a year, and I need help understanding exactly what the issue might be, and perhaps even a possible solution as how to fix it.
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Original post summary:
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I had a Toshiba Satellite C855-12L laptop, some 5-6 years ago, and it served me beautifully, at the time. As it was a relatively new piece of hardware for me, all sort of experiments took place, including putting a BIOS password (probably on HDD too).
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My Toshiba C855-12L laptop dies, and I ended up with a BIOS-locked drive, which doesn’t accept either Master or user password (the very same password was used for both). I tried various software to try and diagnose and unlock the drive but had no success with it.
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When I was restarting the laptop, sometime it would ask me for a BIOS password, other times for a HDD password. Whatever the case, I remember always entering the same password, and the system would boot. However, my motherboard fried, according to the service repair, and I got stuck with the locked HDD.
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iFixit suggested I update my question, so here’s what I learned in the meantime:
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After inserting the HDD (ToshibaDisk Drive MK5075GSX ), into another machine, it would ask for a password, but after entering the very same password, it says it’s the wrong one. 3 attempts and strike, the machine shuts down. As I’m using the same set of passwords for years, I’m pretty sure the password isn’t the problem. Might be wrong on that one, though.
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· I need data extracted from the drive by any means necessary, excluding going to a Data Recovery Center. I don’t care about the drive itself, only the data.
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Has anyone else encountered this problem? Can I somehow unlock the drive, and salvage my childhood memories that are locked there. I don’t care about the drive itself, but the data is pretty important. Is there anything that can be done, which doesn’t include me contacting Data Recovery services or centers?
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· The drive doesn’t accept the passwords (the one password I use for absolutely everything) and power cycles after three incorrectly entered passwords.
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Thanks in advance.
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· The drive is '''ATA Password protected''', with the security level set to High (in which case it should accept either Master or the User password).
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EDIT: After connecting the HDD externally, and listing it in Victoria (software), it displays the message that drive is protected with ATA password. However, the same password that was previously used doesn’t seem to work. Any idea on how to bypass it, and collect the data?
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· I learned this by using several software solutions, like Victoria and mHDD.
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· Neither of the aforementioned solutions helped me unlock the drive.
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· When plugged externally, the Storage feature in Computer Management (Windows 10) acknowledges the drive, but doesn’t let the system initialize it. It also displays the drive as a single partition instead of two.
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· Afterward, I learned that this particular model, the Toshiba Disk Drive MK5075GSX, suffers from firmware issues, so I have no idea how to address that without accessing the drive first.
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So basically, apart from learning what type of lock was used to secure the drive and realizing that backups exist for a reason, I’m still stuck on square one. I need a pointer in the right direction or instructions on how to unlock the drive.
I have a hard drive issue that’s been bugging me for over a year, and I need help understanding exactly what the issue might be, and perhaps even a possible solution as how to fix it.
I had a Toshiba Satellite C855-12L laptop, some 5-6 years ago, and it served me beautifully, at the time. As it was a relatively new piece of hardware for me, all sort of experiments took place, including putting a BIOS password (probably on HDD too).
When I was restarting the laptop, sometime it would ask me for a BIOS password, other times for a HDD password. Whatever the case, I remember always entering the same password, and the system would boot. However, my motherboard fried, according to the service repair, and I got stuck with the locked HDD.
After inserting the HDD (Toshiba Disk Drive MK5075GSX ), into another machine, it would ask for a password, but after entering the very same password, it says it’s the wrong one. 3 attempts and strike, the machine shuts down. As I’m using the same set of passwords for years, I’m pretty sure the password isn’t the problem. Might be wrong on that one, though.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? Can I somehow unlock the drive, and salvage my childhood memories that are locked there. I don’t care about the drive itself, but the data is pretty important. Is there anything that can be done, which doesn’t include me contacting Data Recovery services or centers?
Thanks in advance.
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EDIT: After connecting the HDD externally, and listing it in Victoria (software), it displays the message that drive is protected with ATA password. However, the same password that was previously used doesn’t seem to work. Any idea on how to bypass it, and collect the data?
Greetings everyone,
I have a hard drive issue that’s been bugging me for over a year, and I need help understanding exactly what the issue might be, and perhaps even a possible solution as how to fix it.
I had a Toshiba Satellite C855-12L laptop, some 5-6 years ago, and it served me beautifully, at the time. As it was a relatively new piece of hardware for me, all sort of experiments took place, including putting a BIOS password (probably on HDD too).
When I was restarting the laptop, sometime it would ask me for a BIOS password, other times for a HDD password. Whatever the case, I remember always entering the same password, and the system would boot. However, my motherboard fried, according to the service repair, and I got stuck with the locked HDD.
After inserting the HDD (Toshiba Disk Drive MK5075GSX ), into another machine, it would ask for a password, but after entering the very same password, it says it’s the wrong one. 3 attempts and strike, the machine shuts down. As I’m using the same set of passwords for years, I’m pretty sure the password isn’t the problem. Might be wrong on that one, though.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? Can I somehow unlock the drive, and salvage my childhood memories that are locked there. I don’t care about the drive itself, but the data is pretty important. Is there anything that can be done, which doesn’t include me contacting Data Recovery services or centers?
Thanks in advance.