IBM Thinkpad 600e can't get past password prompt...

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Jules Richardson wrote:
> Sridhar Ayengar wrote:
>> I don't believe that it is possible.  When a hard drive password for a 
>> ThinkPad gets lost, it usually means buy a new hard drive and send the 
>> old for recovery.
> 
> So why's it 'new drive' - what does it do to it that means it at least 
> can't be reformatted by the user? I didn't think there was anything in 
> the ATA spec along the lines of 'hose this drive' - or does it try and 
> keep track of drives it's 'seen' before?

It could probably be reformatted by the user, but that precludes 
retrieval of any of the data.  I'm not completely sure, but I would 
guess that the method it uses is to encrypt the partition table.  It 
sure seems that way.

Peace...  Sridhar