Text 16566, 127 rader
Skriven 2006-03-18 20:10:00 av JEAN PARROT (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av GORDON HUFF
Ärende: MBR ?
=============

    Hello Gordon, nice talking to you !  

 GH> I've looked into it and have changed my advice.   

        Please do not stop there, keep searching as I do.

 GH> Search for mhd3.zip ... about 6.5 k ... and read the 
 GH> advice.

        I have not yet, I will soon.

 GH> http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html

 GH> Next ...  you have a "locked HD" or ATA password . This is
 GH> a continuing topic on the ThinkPad archives.

        I might have started one too on the THinkpad user group.

 GH> This "feature" was added to ATA hard drives at the ATA-3
 GH> level ... There is an ATA standards web site at:

 GH> www.t13.org 

 GH> The spec of interest is : 
 GH> "ANSI X3.278-1997, AT Atachment 3 Interface."

 GH> A "locked" HD is not totally unresponsive - after all, 
 GH> if you have a password, the system boots.

        Here is part, very small part of the HD Technical Manual:

        The Disable Password command requests a transfer of a single sector of
data from the host including information specified in Figure 6-5. Then the
drive checks the transferred password. If the User Password or Master Password
match the drive disables the lock function. This command does not change the
Master
Password which may be re-activated later by setting User Password.
 
 Word  Description 
 
   Control word 
 bit 0 : Identifier; 1  Master, 0 User 
 bit 1 to 15 : Reserved 
 01 to 16  Password ( 32 bytes ) 
 17 to 255  Reserved 
 
Figure 6-5. Password Information for Password disable command

        If you are interested, give me your addy and I will attach the
   manual. Very good reading. The way that I see it now, the PW is the
   ultimate protection and without it, you are up a creek without a
   paddle. My only left resort is to mechanicaly flush the medium
   together with the PW. I do not need the data, just the use of the
   drive.

 GH> Keeping in mind that I have not checked this out
 GH> with my true expert ( ... a computer club member
 GH> is a Quality Control Engineer at Maxtor ...) ...

        If he should come up with a solution, I would praise his name
   all over the globe.

 GH> Three kinds of password can be set from the user
 GH> keyboard. One is the BIOS password - which can be
 GH> undone by resetting the CMOS. One is the
 GH> Supervisor password - you have to change a "serial"
 GH> "flash memory" chip on a ThinkPad. (If you read this 
 GH> before you re-flash it .... this is usually the same 
 GH> as the HD password.) The last is the Hard Drive Password.

        That is exactly what the manual states, you did nice research.

 GH> The hard drive can be locked int two modes :
 GH> "High Security" and "Maximum Security."
 GH> There are two passwords ... "User" and
 GH> "Maximum." The Maximum password is set at the 
 GH> factory and, often, never changed. 

        IBM maintains that they do not set a PW at all. The manual
   states that it can be set but they do not. They maintain that the
   OEM system builder, the seller, the IT technician or the user can
   set the MPW and then on top of this another PW, the user's.

 GH> If the HD is set to "High Security" you can give either
 GH> the User password or the Maximum password 
 GH> (through the mhd3 utility) and unlock the drive.

        That is the crux of the matter, the device is stupid and can
        only obey a prope password, to defeat it, one needs it.

 GH> What is the Maximum password -- ahh --- I think you 
 GH> have to search for it. If you have a similar drive
 GH> but unlocked you'd look for it with a utility.

        Maybe, I would have to have one. The 7 HDs that I have are all
   PW protected.

 GH> The articles I read differed on where this information
 GH> is kept - some say firmware in the hard drive, others
 GH> say the "test cylinder" and some say the boot track.

        The manual from IBM, a copy of the Hitachi manual, states that
   it is on a protected sector of the medium, linked to the MBR.
   Events seem to proof this, when booting, the BIOS looks for it, I
   guess at the MBR level and stops right there and then, asking for
   the PW on screen. Going in the BIOS, Security, HD PW says: present.
   What would wwe see if one HD was placed in a system that does not
   honour this protection ?

 GH> By the way - if you have enough of these hard drives
 GH> there is a market for them.

        Gordon, I have 7 of them. If there is a market, I would not
   pass them on to anybody as they are not useable. I also read that
   they can be placed into a Mac and there formatted ??? As they are
   ATA, would a non ATA machine see them allowing a format ? I am
   still juggling with a demagnetization of them. I have not looked
   into it, waiting to get back up north. These have proven to be the
   challenge.
     
       
   Hey, bunch ! I got my Thinkpad back up.
             It took 3 hours but is worth it. 
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