However, the hard drive unlock password is set from within the computers BIOS. This is not the bios password set on the motherboard bios, this is the Password locking the drive from IO read/writes from below the computer’s bios level. I found a way to unlock the password of any drive that the HDD ATA password was stored with this certain BIOS. Whats needed, Hiren BootCD (usb preferably) 14.0 with BIOS 'Master password Generator'.
Aug 21,2019 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions
How do I unlock my WD hard drive?
I forgot the password of my WD external hard drive. When I connected it to my laptop, it required a user password. How do I unlock a password protected external hard drive and access the data inside it?
There is no particular reason to set a password on your hard disk. Passwords are used for security and it is suitable to use to protect your files. You can also remove the password by entering your password and press the spacebar. Then press Enter and remove the password. This procedure removes both hard drive password and power-on-password if they are same. What if you forgot the hard drive password? Stay calm. This article shows you how to unlock hard drive and how to restore data from hard drive.
Part 1: How to Unlock Hard Drive with Password
1. How to Encrypt a Hard Drive
A hard drive with password protection must be a securer location for most of people to save and store important data. The steps are simple. Take some minutes and set a hard drive password.
- Press and hold F1 and turn on your computer to set a hard disk password.
- Select the password icon. Next select HDD 1 or HDD 2 as per your desire according to type of hard disk you wish to set.
- There you type the password according to your wish and press Enter.
- The password should be of minimum 7 characters with a combination of numbers and letters of uppercase and lowercase.
- Next the password verification will be required. You need to retype your password again and press Enter.
- Then the password is set.
Forgot hard drive password? Hard to drive locked? How to unlock hard drive with password? Let's move on to get the steps of unlocking password.
2. How to Remove Hard Drive Password
If you have your hard drive locked and then you may ask help from the hard drive provider, most providers will tell you that you have no way to reset or recover it. Or some will ask a fee for that. But there are some tools available to make this done. Here is a guide of hard drive password recovery.
- Download and install HHD Unlock Wizard.
- Run the application and click Next.
- Choose your hard drive from the hard drive list.
- Click Next and the application will start unlocking. Note that this application runs the process only with a code.
- When the process is finished, shut down the computer and boot up again. The password should have been removed.
If your find a Mac hard drive locked and protected by password, don't worry! We also provide the solution to unlock your Mac hard drive. Check out the page and get the solution: How to Bypass Mac OS X Password.
Part 2: How to Recover Data from Hard Drive
After you removed the password, you can have access to your hard drive data. If some data has been lost, you can recover data from hard drive with hard drive data recovery software. Recoverit data recovery is a safe and effective hard drive recovery software, retrieves your lost videos, photos, music, documents, emails, etc. from your computer hard drive as well as from USB drives, external hard drives, and other storage devices.
3 Steps to Restore Data from Hard Drive Without Password
To recover data from hard disk, you need to download and install the hard drive recovery software, and then follow the next simple steps. If your hard drive is an external device, please connect it to your computer in advance.
Select a hard drive
Scan the hard drive
Recover hard drive data
When you run Recoverit, it will show you a list of the hard disks detected or connected on you computer. Here, you should select the hard drive that was password-protected, and click 'Start' to go on.
The recovery software will start scanning your locked hard drive to make all the hidden, inaccessible or lost data visible. Wait for a while and you can get the scanning results.
After the scan completes, you can preview different types of files like images, videos, audios, documents and many more. Click 'Recover' and save them to a safe storage device.
Just in 3 steps, you're able to retrieve data lost, deleted, hidden or locked from a hard drive. All you need is just Recoverit Data Recovery, a data rescue program working on Windows and Mac computer.
Tutorial: How to Recover Data from External Hard Drive?
What's Wrong with Drive
- Recover Your Drive
- Fix Your Drive
- Format/Wipe Drive
- Know Your Drive
Turn on and set up FileVault
FileVault 2 is available in OS X Lion or later. When FileVault is turned on, your Mac always requires that you log in with your account password.
- Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Security & Privacy.
- Click the FileVault tab.
- Click , then enter an administrator name and password.
- Click Turn On FileVault.
If other users have accounts on your Mac, you might see a message that each user must type in their password before they will be able to unlock the disk. For each user, click the Enable User button and enter the user's password. User accounts that you add after turning on FileVault are automatically enabled.
Choose how you want to be able to unlock your disk and reset your password, in case you ever forget your password:
- If you're using OS X Yosemite or later, you can choose to use your iCloud account to unlock your disk and reset your password.*
- If you're using OS X Mavericks, you can choose to store a FileVault recovery key with Apple by providing the questions and answers to three security questions. Choose answers that you're sure to remember.*
- If you don't want to use iCloud FileVault recovery, you can create a local recovery key. Keep the letters and numbers of the key somewhere safe—other than on your encrypted startup disk.
If you lose both your account password and your FileVault recovery key, you won't be able to log in to your Mac or access the data on your startup disk.
Encryption occurs in the background as you use your Mac, and only while your Mac is awake and plugged in to AC power. You can check progress in the FileVault section of Security & Privacy preferences. Any new files that you create are automatically encrypted as they are saved to your startup disk.
When FileVault setup is complete and you restart your Mac, you will use your account password to unlock your disk and allow your Mac to finish starting up. FileVault requires that you log in every time your Mac starts up, and no account is permitted to log in automatically.
Reset your password or change your FileVault recovery key
If you forget your account password or it doesn't work, you might be able to reset your password.
If you want to change the recovery key used to encrypt your startup disk, turn off FileVault in Security & Privacy preferences. You can then turn it on again to generate a new key and disable all older keys.
Turn off FileVault
If you no longer want to encrypt your startup disk, you can turn off FileVault:
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Security & Privacy.
- Click the FileVault tab.
- Click , then enter an administrator name and password.
- Click Turn Off FileVault.
Decryption occurs in the background as you use your Mac, and only while your Mac is awake and plugged in to AC power. You can check progress in the FileVault section of Security & Privacy preferences.
Learn more
- Learn how to create and deploy a FileVault recovery key for Mac computers in your company, school, or other institution.
- If you're using FileVault in Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to FileVault 2 by upgrading to OS X Lion or later. After upgrading OS X, open FileVault preferences and follow the onscreen instructions to upgrade FileVault.
- RAID partitions or non-standard Boot Camp partitions on the startup drive might prevent OS X from installing a local Recovery System. Without a Recovery System, FileVault won't encrypt your startup drive. Learn more.
* If you store your recovery key with Apple or your iCloud account, there's no guarantee that Apple will be able to give you the key if you lose or forget it. Not all languages and regions are serviced by AppleCare or iCloud, and not all AppleCare-serviced regions offer support in every language. If you set up your Mac for a language that AppleCare doesn't support, then turn on FileVault and store your key with Apple (OS X Mavericks only), your security questions and answers could be in a language that AppleCare doesn't support.