# Hard drive format.



## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

I have an old Laptop at my house <any year from 1995-98> and it has a password on it that my family doesn't know anymore. I forgot what the password was called but i know it prompts you before it even starts up. Its on like, a black screen. <i think it was called Dos password, something like that.> I need to know how to format this hard drive to start over from scratch.


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

Its probably a BIOS password, and formatting the hard drive won't get rid of it. Being a laptop, the easiest way is probably with a program called KillCMOS.


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

brendandonhu said:


> Its probably a BIOS password, and formatting the hard drive won't get rid of it. Being a laptop, the easiest way is probably with a program called KillCMOS.


Yeah!...BIOS password is what it was called. How exactly does the KillCMOS program work? Would i have to kill the password from another system or something? because if i can't get on the comp to put the program on there how can i do it?? thanx


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Kill CMOS will not work, as you have already noted.
With a laptop BIOS password, you cannot even get to boot from a disk.

The news could be bad, as often laptops require a return to the agents for this operation. There is usually a method of attaching a specially wired device to the printer port or similar to allow it to boot, but it varies widely between laptops and only the agents would probably know.

Its secure to make it difficult to use stolen laptops. Agents usually need proof of ownership as well.


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

darn! I really wanted to justr format it and reset evertything and delete everything to just get somethinjg going that would be a little more convenient, but i guess it calls for more work than that. I was gonna use it to carry around my music because i'm a music producer. It woulld have been very convenient. But anyway, i'll read more into this situation to see what i could possibly do. <also, if anyone has a laptop they don't want maybe we could talk and set up a deal, just e-mail me at [email protected], and give me the specs : GB's, RAM, pentium, which windows version, etc.>


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

also, would replacing the hard drive all together help out at all?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

No replacing the drive would not. The make and model may help as on some you can remove the CMOS battery and get round it.


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

so i'm guessing that if i remove the CMOS battery all the settings will eventually be gone because the battery is no longer there to power the memory? if this is correct, i might need further instructions on how to take the battery out. I think i just found my ticket to more convenient computer usage. thanx Dave.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Taking out the battery may work. The time varies from one machine to another--a few seconds to days before all the capacitors discharge. Overnight will do it 99% of the time.

What make/model? Maybe we can find out where the battery is.


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

cool. well, its an IBM thinkpad and its about 4 or more years old.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

There are a few different Thinkpad models. here's a couple manuals for you to look through. They are pdf's, so if you want to download them instead of just viewing them in your browser, right-click the links and "Save Target As...".

http://www.acs.nmu.edu/docs/r40hmm.pdf
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/600tech.pdf


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

thanks. I'll try this out and report back to you guys.


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

okay. Comes to find out. the computer is not that old, and it has windows XP on it. And the password may not be a BIOS pass, because this is Novel client prompting me to enter the pass. and from the looks of it, it does boot up before the pass is asked for because the windows XP load bar comes up,m but before it comes to the desktop screen the novel client appears and asks for the pass and user name. But there is one problem, there is no cd drive, and my mother is thinking of buyting one for it. any suggestions? <I'm so sorry that I've given wrong ifno, but i JUST got the laptop in my grasp and its far different from my guesses.>


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

I still think the battery removing would work, because the settings would go<taking novel with it>. so if I can locate the battery on this thing, it'll be set. thanx


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## Arky (Aug 17, 2004)

Do a Yahoo search on "CMOS password". There you will find a host of methods. Pick one.


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

IBM laptops lock the HDD as well as the BIOS, if the password is set at that level.

There is no way around that issue either.


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

That Novell password is a network password. It looks as though this was a corporate machine on a network. You just may (mmmmm) just get away with leaving this one blank as it is a laptop and may have been used on the move. It depends whether it was set up with the same password for windows.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

That password is no doubt a software password. I'd go with getting a CD-ROM for it and formatting the HD. You don't want all of someone else's junk on there, anyway.

Nice that it has XP already. It may be a better machine than you thought .


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

so what i bassically have to do is either change the battery, find the password <which i can't do> or switch the jumpers? This is really getting me worried because i was looking forward to having this. but if i don't know the password, i can never use this thing again. I still don't know where the battery is, but if you can tell me or send me a diagram, pointing to the area its in. This one looks fairly new, so could you help me by lookinf for the drawings/plans for the newer models?thanx to all that has helped


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

WAIT!! I think i found it. <lol>...Underneath the laptop, there was a switch and it was a couple of pictures next to it, of an opened lock, and a locked lock. I unlocked it and pryed this long strip, and when i turned the strip upside down it was a picture of a battery with the plus sign <negative, positive battery signs>. So I'm guessing this is it. But it doesn't say anywhere "CMOS battery", its just yellow with a caution stating that i shouldn't put it in certain amounts of heat. Reply back guys, and tell me if this is it. <i'm excited again>.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

They usually look like large hearing-aid batteries ("cells", technically). Is it a silver disk about the size of a dime (can vary from dime to quarter)? If so, that is it.

But I still don't think that this will clear the password. If it is a Novell pass, it would seem reasonable to me that it was a software password and not a BIOS pass. If you can get into the BIOS now, what is the boot sequence set to? Put CD-ROM at the top and boot your XP CD from it. Then you should be able to format and put your own stuff in. Have you tried booting from a CD at all?

If you can't boot from a CD. how about a startup floppy? Here's one
Run this program to create a Win98 boot floppy-->


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

it doesn't have a CD rom but I'll try to floppy method.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

How were you planning on installing an OS without a CD-ROM?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

The CMOS battery in Laptops is usually NOT the same as the desktop type - they often use larger ones to support the system whilst the main battery is being changed. That one you found sounds about right.


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## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

That battery sounds like the normal operating Laptop battery. not the CMOS one!


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Yellow????


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

Elvandil said:


> How were you planning on installing an OS without a CD-ROM?


If you had read the post you would would've seen me say that i was guessing about the features before, but now i actually have it in my hands. <I'm not trying to get smart because it does seem like it but i was just saying>


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## Renegade313 (May 26, 2004)

after i thought about it last night <before i read you guys's replies> i realized that it was the operating battery because a battery of such importance <such as the CMOS battery> wouldn't be exposed like that, and so easily removed. And i also noticed that when i took it out, the battery light on the laptop went off meaning the only source of power that was going into it was the plug directly from the outlet. Now, about that windows 98 boot floppy. If i was to use that, would it overwrite my XP? Or would it just prompt me to change some things ? <I'm not really sure because you guys obviously know more about computers than I do, but that doesn't really matter to me.>


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

OK. So now your options are reduced. Unless you can come up with a CD-ROM drive (internal or external USB), you have no way of re-installing the OS. That would be the best option, for sure, but may not be possible.

Try booting from the 98 floppy. The booting itself will tell us quite a bit. If it boots, then we know that the password is not a BIOS password and is probably enforced by software.

By running fdisk from the prompt after you get booted and choosing the menu item for displaying partition information, we will be able to tell (probably) if you have multiple partitions and what sizes they are.

Booting from the floppy will do nothing to the hard drive unless you execute a command on it. If you chose to remove partitions in fdisk, for example, it would do exactly that. But if you just display information, it will leave the drive untouched.

Let us know what you find out with this floppy boot. I really don't know where to go from here without a CD-ROM, but it may give somebody some hints or ideas. I have software that I can share with you to access the NTFS drive (if that is what it is -- fdisk will tell us that), so we may be able to find and access something useful.


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