If this is a simple password, then there is probably some way to break it.
Are you sure this is DELL ,and not some third party encryption program? If
it is encrypted, then you are looking for a key, not a password, which
makes a big difference. A password is a simple entry device, while an
encryption key is an actual part of the code. There is nothing that is
going to be able to crack the key for you.
However, the primary purpose of the key is to protect the data from
viewing, so you should be able to clean the drive.
The first thing I would try is using whatever write zero utility Hitatchi
has posted to erase the drive. You do not want to boot off the drive, when
you work with it. Make sure you boot off a floppy. If that doesn't work,
try putting the hard drive on another computer, so it is not running as the
primary active partition, and then wiping it... that should work, because
whatever program is starting up in the MBR,.... won't ....if you are
running the drive as a non active partition.
If you can't find a Hitachi utility, unlikely, try using Autoclave
http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/ to wipe the drive. Make
sure you boot off the AutoCLave disk in order to use it. And expect an full
erasure to take many hours, however, you probably only need to remove the
Boot Sector and the first 100 MBs in order to work with the drive.
Rode
The NOSPIN Group
http://www.freepctech.com/rode/
> I wonder if any of you know how to clear a Dell
>password from the hard drive. Of course, current owner buys from friend who
>bought from friend and no one knows (or admits) to whom original owner was;
>nonetheless, Dell will not help. I "hotwired" successfully the laptop's
>BIOS password; however, the hard drive's password is a real stumper.
>
>I- I don't care about the data,
>just want a formattable, 20gb drive.
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