Help With Locked Hard Drive

[Louis Bybee]

I assumed what was meant there was without
knowledge from the user, like the password.

Correct. Such as forgetting the password, or a "friend" locking the drive,
and refusing to cough up the password. :-[

If that was what was meant, it isnt possible.
If only because the ATA security is designed
to ensure that the drive isnt even visible if its
been secured and the password isnt supplied.



Physical access to the drive.

Correct. The services I've contacted need physical access to the drive, and
claim they dont need either the user, or the master password to accomplish
their task. Just money. The technician also explained to me (I took him to
lunch) that they can unlock the drive, access it, and relock the drive with
the same password. This they do in the case of a law enforcement situation
where they don't want to tip the perp they have been into his drive (I would
suspect that his drive having turned up missing for a few days might be a
clue?).

In my case the Laptop is working again with a new drive, and the value of
the old drive isn't worth the cost to unlock it. It has however picqued my
interest in the technology.

Thank you.

Louis

Louis Bybee wrote:

So how would I reconcile this answer with the knowledge of commercial
outfits that do exactly that, for a wheelbarrow of cash of course. :-]

 

[Louis Bybee]

Do exactly what?

The services I've contacted need physical access to the drive, and claim
they dont need either the user, or the master password to accomplish their
task. Just money. The technician also explained to me (I took him to lunch)
that they can unlock the drive, access it, and relock the drive with the
same password.

Louis--
*********************************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

for a wheelbarrow of cash of course. :-]

Thank you.

Louis--
*********************************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

There is no workaround other than obtaining the password.

I have been trying to discover a workaround for accessing a Hard Drive
locked via the ATA Standard. I have copied various posts regarding my quest
below. I would really like to hear from anyone that has knowledge of the ATA
Standard Hard Drive Locking Technology, and/or has successfully unlocked a
password protected drive without knowledge of the User, or Master Password.

Thank you.

Louis--
********************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

[snip]

 

[Hank]

Can the drive be accessed as an external drive using any of the usual available
ports?

 

[Louis Bybee]

I doubt it. As I am beginning to understand (with help from some very
knowledgeable people) once the password is set, the drive can't be accessed
in any usual, or normal manner, until the password is passed on to the drive
correctly, or removed from the drive using the correct procedure.

Thank you.

Louis--
*********************************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Walt (e-mail address removed)> wrote in message

I assumed what was meant there was without
knowledge from the user, like the password.

Correct. Such as forgetting the password, or a "friend" locking the drive,
and refusing to cough up the password. :-[

If that was what was meant, it isnt possible.

That sentence didn't even make sense, so what exactly isn't possible, Simon?

That is a load of crap, Simon. The drive is accessible at any moment,
just not for reading or writing.

Whatever that's supposed to mean.

Correct. The services I've contacted need physical access to the drive, and

There is a difference between want and need. They may want it but that doesn't
necessarily mean that they need it. If the software isn't allowed to come to the
hardware (leave the premises) then the hardware has to come to the software.

claim they dont need either the user, or the master password to accomplish
their task. Just money. The technician also explained to me (I took him to
lunch) that they can unlock the drive, access it, and relock the drive with
the same password. This they do in the case of a law enforcement situation
where they don't want to tip the perp they have been into his drive (I would
suspect that his drive having turned up missing for a few days might be a
clue?).

In my case the Laptop is working again with a new drive, and the value of
the old drive isn't worth the cost to unlock it. It has however picqued my
interest in the technology.

Thank you.

Louis

Louis Bybee wrote:

So how would I reconcile this answer with the knowledge of commercial
outfits that do exactly that, for a wheelbarrow of cash of course. :-]

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

The services I've contacted need physical access to the drive, and claim
they dont need either the user, or the master password to accomplish their
task. Just money.

So they use the backdoor that only the manufacturer knows to unlock the drive.
They likely bought the license from the manufacturer to do this kind of work.
The agreement very likely includes a hefty fine when the software to_do_it_with
falls in other hands.

The technician also explained to me (I took him to lunch) that they can
unlock the drive, access it, and relock the drive with the same password.

Backdoor, certainly.
Other data recovery services can remove the password without it by a
complete rewrite of the servotracks.

Louis--
*********************************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

for a wheelbarrow of cash of course. :-]

Thank you.

Louis--
*********************************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond


There is no workaround other than obtaining the password.

I have been trying to discover a workaround for accessing a Hard Drive
locked via the ATA Standard. I have copied various posts regarding my quest
below. I would really like to hear from anyone that has knowledge of the ATA
Standard Hard Drive Locking Technology, and/or has successfully unlocked a
password protected drive without knowledge of the User, or Master Password.

Thank you.

Louis--
********************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

[snip]

 

[Louis Bybee]

So they use the backdoor that only the manufacturer knows to unlock the drive.
They likely bought the license from the manufacturer to do this kind of work.
The agreement very likely includes a hefty fine when the software to_do_it_with
falls in other hands.
password.

Backdoor, certainly.
Other data recovery services can remove the password without it by a
complete rewrite of the servotracks.

Very informative.

Thank you.

Louis--
*********************************************
Remove the two fish in address to respond

 

[Rod Speed]

Correct. Such as forgetting the password, or a "friend" locking
the drive, and refusing to cough up the password. :-[

Yeah, lot to be said for locking the drive yourself, both
to prevent that 'friend' from doing that, and to give some
level of protection against it being stolen or just dying etc.

Corse that will make the risk of losing it worse.

Correct. The services I've contacted need physical access to
the drive, and claim they dont need either the user, or the master
password to accomplish their task. Just money. The technician
also explained to me (I took him to lunch) that they can unlock
the drive, access it, and relock the drive with the same password.
This they do in the case of a law enforcement situation where
they don't want to tip the perp they have been into his drive
(I would suspect that his drive having turned up missing
for a few days might be a clue?).

They could just arrest him, comb the drive while he's
arrested, and the stupidest crims would likely assume
that they couldnt have accessed the drive contents
if its still passworded when he is released etc.

In my case the Laptop is working again with a new drive,
and the value of the old drive isn't worth the cost to unlock it.

Yeah, thats often the way with drives so cheap now.

It has however picqued my interest in the technology.

Yeah, it did mine too when I realised that it is quite secure.

Thank you.

No problem, thats what these groups are for.

Louis Bybee wrote:
So how would I reconcile this answer with the knowledge of commercial
outfits that do exactly that, for a wheelbarrow of cash of course. :-]

 

[Rod Speed]

Can the drive be accessed as an external
drive using any of the usual available ports?

Nope, if the drive doesnt get the password at boot time, it
doesnt even respond as a drive at all, it appears to be missing.

Quite a decent approach for a reasonable level of security.

I'm not sure that it would be a triffic idea to be so secure that
operations like that arsehole bin Laden could operate with
impunity. Thats bad enough with secure comms already.

 

[Leo]

Backdoor, certainly.

Backdoors exists, and they are different on different models. Some
HDD's have more than one backdoor. And, by the way, i do not think,
that all of them have been made by developers intentionally. Some of
them are more similar on bugs ;-)

Other data recovery services can remove the password without it by a
complete rewrite of the servotracks.

It means a losing of user data, and consequently it is inapplicable.

Leonid