Service Forum

FarmerPete · Nou Venit Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

I was contemplating testing out your HD unlocking software for my company, but the one thing I really needed to know was, does it work on SATA hard disks? All of our T60's use 2.5inch SATA drives. We had a brand new 160gb WD drive accidentally locked such that we know the user password, but not the master. The cost of the software is about the cost of a new 160gb drive, and it would be handy to have this around.

bob · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:54 pm Post subject:

Yes, it works with SATA, by just using a SATA2IDE bridge.

User password can disable the lock, in fact the master is the weak one.
If you know what it is (user or master) then KeyON can be used to disable it.
HD security tools are not compatible yet for passphrased passwords, make sure your T60 (that originally locked the drive) doesn't have this option enabled in BIOS>Security.

FarmerPete · Nou Venit Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

What happened was we bought a new T60 for one of our users, but he wanted a bigger hard disk than the stock hard disk. So, we purchased a 160gb Western Digital hard disk for his T60. I got every thing working, and then I went to set the HD password like normal. The user set the user password, and I set the master. Later that day he was having a slight issue and I needed to fix it for him. I discovered that the master password I thought I set would not work (yes I pushed F1 to enter the master password). My only explenation is that either I fat fingered it (twice) or for some reason Western Digitial drives don't play nice with T60's (I've never used a WD laptop drive on any of our IBM laptops). I'm guessing it was the fat-fingering one.

So what you are telling me is that with your software, if we know the user HD password, that it will be very easy to disable the master? Right now I just want the HD back, I don't care about the content (I've imaged the content off to another HD). I don't care if it's wiped/erased. Unfortuantely, even though the HD is in a useable state at the moment since I know the 1 password, my boss and the powers that be wont allow the drive to be reused since we can't have our back door password. They are affraid that the user with the HD could get hit by a bus and then we would have no access to the drive. But i would be more than willing to buy a SATA-IDE convereter for cheap so that I could get this to work.

bob · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:44 pm Post subject:

Yes, I think you misstyped the password, it is the only explanation.

The lock can be disabled using one of the too passwords user or master (well, not in the TP BIOS, you aren't allowed to do that). In fact if the drive security level is MAX, master can't unlock the drive without wipping but user can. Master is in fact the weak password, it's aimed only as a backup password.

If you know the user password, then KeyON will disable the lock without the need to erase the drive, and is clear that you donlt need to scan for it since you know it. KeyON is in fact an add-on utility in the HD Security tools pack, that can lock/unlock/disable HD security with given passowrds. It works like your BIOS lock/unlock script.

The only limitation is that it does not support passphrase passwords. The password is encrypted anyway and KeyON can cope with this, but not the TCPA passphrase.

Simply check in BIOS is passphrase is disabled. If it is, then HDST is the right tool for you.

Regards,

FarmerPete · Nou Venit Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

On a side note, I had a 2nd Western Digital drive, (WD1600BEVS) and I set up a 2nd user on that drive. I enabled the HD lock, had the user enter his password, and then I set the master password. I made sure to type it out very slow, since I didn't want to lock another drive. I saved the changes and rebooted. I tried using the master password and it will not work. Either there is something wrong with this variant of T60 (It's an odd model that we haven't used before, 8743-gzu) or with WD hard drives and this model of IBM laptop.

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

Hi,
I have noticed that you said it was a fat fingering, but you are right. Twice in a row? Because you had to confirm the master everytime..

Now, looks strange, I guess it is a drive firmware issue. I can assure you that I have a T60 here and tested all types of drive on it.
Is true that WD drives security lacks in every aspect. For example some WD series have a manufacturer master password that will not be overwritten by the user's (drive users) settings, which is very unsecure, compared with a Travelstar drive.
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

FarmerPete · Nou Venit Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

There was only one other thing that I could think might cause this...That being that maybe the drive is in "Secure" mode? We've never used Secure mode, as we want to be able to retrieve the data from an employees hard disk in the event that he/she is hit by a bus, forgets the password, or is terminated. Could it be possible that some how these drives default to "secure" mode even though I did nothing different than I have with Hitachi/Toshiba drives in the past? Of course the drives were shipped to us with the lock disengaged, thus it doesn't seem like they should default to anything that the IBM Bios doesn't tell them to. If a drive is in "Secure" mode, will it act like it is a bad password when you hit F1 to enter the master password and type the master password in? Or is the IBM Bios smart enough to realize it is in secure mode and thus not even allow you to get to the master password prompt?

Edit:
I called WD support, and "SHOCK" the first level person had no idea that their hard drives could be locked. The second level person knew a tad bit about it, but he is going to have to call me back.

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

There is no "secure mode" such thing/mode/whatever does not exist.

When you set a master passwrod that will remain set in the drive until you change it. By setting this the drive will not be locked. Only the user password locks the drive. The two password have no interdependency (are not dependant each other).
_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.

FarmerPete · Nou Venit Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 5

victor · S.F. Boss Joined: 07 Mar 2004 Posts: 2581 Location: Staff

Yes, but only when the drive is locked. Your drive was not locked, you locked it. The mode is called "Security Locked"

Think pads do not set Security MAX when both passwords are set. Anyway you said you know the user and Bob axplained already that this will unlock the drive - no mather what level it is MAX or High, the drive no need to be wipped out. Very Happy

_________________
Victor Voinea
ALLservice HQ, Romania.