So this last Saturday a buddy of mine was yard sale shopping and came across a gateway N214 for sale for $10. At home starts it up and figures out it has a HDD password. Makes sense now why they sold it so cheap to begin with. He calls me up asking if I knew how to remove it and to install a new OS etc. I looked online for hours on how to possibly remove this password, looks like there are very slim options. My friend got frustrated with it so I told him I would buy it from him for $20 dollars in hope I could figure out a way to get passed this problem and get it at least working, maybe throw Ubuntu on it because it is an older computer thinking it would be a good investment. I'm a computer science major and would like to use it for my programming class, and love just messing around and modifying the OS to your feel/style making it more user friendly to the actual user so its more of a tool instead of a casual check my Facebook, and e-mail. Situation 1: At start up~ the computer boots to start up screen, where you can enter F2 for setup, then right away the next screen prompts. (at this screen you can try as many times as you want) Harddisk Security Sata Port 0 Hitachi HTSXXXXXXXXXLock Situation 2: If you hit the button F2 at the first start up screen It seems to ask for a different password and shows a very similar but different message. The bizarre thing is every like 10-15 seconds the computer makes a beep sound. (this screen limits your number of times you can enter a pw I believe by 3 to 4 then the screen goes black with a _ and I'm guessing freezes/halts) Enter Current Password: _ Things I have tried ~DBAN boot and nuke. No luck, Getting errors every time I try to do the wipe.(no access to the HDD) ~Booting a live disk (Ubuntu) using Gparted hoping I might be able to just reformat and install. Same problem with an Error. If anyone can point me in the right direction It would be greatly appreciated! -Roob
Have you gone into the Bio's and change the Bio's password, Pull the bio's battery out for 30 minutes to reset the bio's... never seen a password on the hard drive, you have to find out what software put it on there, then remove it..
Ok, so I have successfully accessed the main BIOS. Taking the battery out did not work on its own. I had to remove 2 wires next to the battery to make this happen(gut instinct photo 1) I do not know what these wire are nor what they do, If it even really helped. So now I can access the BIOS. The hard drive is the next problem. It still has this password on it. When I enter the BIOS I can at least see that there is a hard drive password (shown In photo 2) Seeing this what would be a next step in accessing the harddrive so I can either A: Install a new OS or B: Be able to wipe the drive clean(I Don't Need Any Information From Disk) Thank you for all your Ideas greatly appreciate it! -Roob
Would there be anything wrong with taking the HDD out completely, and just use a live disk, or a USB livedrive to use the computer. And If I have to save anything I could use a USB external hard drive? or Is that a bad way to use the computer?
Thats just the bios password, Click on Defaults and reboot.... Set boot to boot to cd/dvd first, then you will be able to wipe the drive and format it..
