You still might have to spend money, but here is a possible solution to look
at.  I have never used it so if someone else could chime in about the tool
that would be good too.  It looks like you have to take the drive out of the
system and hook it up to another one running windows to install and use the
tool on the locked drive.

http://www.hddunlock.com/

Derek

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 1:48 PM, Douglas E Simmons <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> From my experience, the HDD password is stored on the hard drive and not in
> the BIOS.  I don't know of an easy way to bypass the hard drive password
> other than replace the hard drive and install an new OS.  I know that data
> recovery companies (for a high price) usually can get around it to get data,
> but costs more than a hard drive and OS.
>
> That being said, there may be hacks out there to retrieve the password when
> the hard drive is attached to another machine, or the machine is booted from
> a CD.  However, I don't know of any.
>
> Doug
>
>  Hi,
>> My brother passed away a week ago and left us a computer with no
>> passwords. It is a Toshiba computer running xp 2005. At startup it
>> boots into a screen that says 'enter your HDD password' it never gets to
>>
>> the windows boot screen. I'm being told that the only thing I can do is
>> send it to Toshiba and they want $425 to fix it. Any ideas on what to
>> do or do I have another paper weight for my desk?
>> Regina Long
>>
>
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