HDD Unlock Wizard Frequently Asked Questions

All hard disk drives have the possibility to set a hardware password, thus making the drive completely inaccessible unless a correct password is provided during the BIOS POST test. When you set a password on your notebook, the drive becomes locked as well. XBox gaming consoles and some desktop computers can also lock hard disk drives. This is usually called "HDD password" or "ATA password".

If you forget the original HDD password, there is no way of restoring it by generic system tools. HDD Unlock Wizard incorporates proprietary unlocking algorithms which allow to remove an unknown HDD password and make hard drive usable again.

If you are at home, then please ensure that your firewall allows connections to the following address: hddunlock.com, TCP port 5412.

If you are at work, then you will have to talk to your network administrator about that.

For Serial-ATA drives, you can just attach the drive to any SATA port, and HDD Unlock Wizard should work just fine.

IDE drives might need some additional steps.

First of all, please switch the drive into Master mode, which can be done by switching jumpers. There are different settings for different HDD manufacturers, and usually you can locate this information on the HDD (on the main sticker). Please note that for WD drives you have to remove all jumpers from the drive.

Second, attach the drive to a dedicated IDE cable. By dedicated we mean that there must be no other devices attached to the same IDE cable, such as: CD/DVD-ROM, other HDD, etc. If your system has only one IDE port, and you'd like to boot from an IDE drive, this might be a problem. In this case you have to boot from a S-ATA drive or use additional PCI IDE controller for your boot drive.

There are technical limitations on how a hard drive has to be attached. HDD Unlock Wizard requires dedicated access to the IDE port since the unlocking process can only be accomplished by using a non-standard protocol. IDE port becomes blocked for the whole unlocking process which can take an hour, so the operating system is unable to access the boot drive for a very long time, which is unacceptable for the operating system. Also, the second (Slave) CD or HDD device on the same cable might respond unpredictable to this protocol, so it is mandatory to remove all slave devices from the cable.

Usually BIOS asks you to press F1 to continue the boot process; please go ahead and press F1. If the computer still freezes or does not boot properly, then you can try to disable the locked drive from BIOS settings. HDD Unlock Wizard will still find such drive.

If this still does not help, then you may try the following option. Disclaimer: you do this at your own risk, we cannot be responsible for any damage to your computer or hard drive! Please attach the IDE cable to the drive but do not attach the power. Attach the power after Windows boots (after you log in). HDD Unlock Wizard will still recognize such drive.

Unfortunately, this is impossible due to technical limitations. Even if you could load the operating system from a CD, there are two things which make unlocking process impossible on a laptop. First is the fact that CD drives are usually attached as a Slave device on the same IDE channel (see explanation above). Second reason is that all laptops prevent locking and unlocking commands from being sent by a software (this is for extended security).

So, in order to unlock a laptop drive, you will have to remove it from the notebook and attach it to a desktop PC by using a 2.5-inch 44-pin IDE to 3.5-inch 40/80 pin IDE adapter.

HDD Unlock Wizard only unlocks Hard Disk Drives. It does not remove BIOS user or administrator passwords. In order to unlock a laptop drive, you have to remove it from the notebook and attach it to a desktop PC by using a 2.5-inch 44-pin IDE to 3.5-inch 40/80 pin IDE adapter.

Please see the list of supported drives to check whether your drive is supported or not. If you are not sure whether your drive is supported, then you can download HDD Unlock Wizard and run diagnostics which is absolutely free and takes seconds.

Uninstallation of the locked drive needs to be done to prevent Windows from trying to access the drive while HDD Unlock Wizard diagnoses and unlocks it. If HDD Unlock Wizard cannot uninstall the drive from the system, then please close HDD Unlock Wizard and try to uninstall the drive manually by using Device Manager.

If this does not work for some reason, then you may try the following option. Disclaimer: you do this at your own risk, we cannot be responsible for any damage to your computer or hard drive! Shutdown the computer. Then attach the IDE cable to the drive but do not attach the power. Start the computer and boot into Windows. After Windows finishes loading, attach the power to the drive. HDD Unlock Wizard will still locate and recognize such drive.

There might be several reasons for that. First of all, ensure that you do not have any SMART-monitor (or motherboard/fan/temperature monitor) running. Please close all such applications since they interfere with HDD Unlock Wizard. Also, some motherboard drivers might cause this problem, so the easiest way to resolve this would be to try the unlocking on another PC.

The unlocking process may also fail when the drive is physically damaged (bad blocks, firmware issues, electronic damage, etc). In this case nothing can be done.

Unfortunately, these drives cannot be unlocked by a software since there are lot of security measures implemented by these manufacturers. These drives can be unlocked only in a lab by performing some soldering work and using external devices.