HELP! Have forgotten hard drive password of laptop

**BASS-TREBLE** · 27th February 2009, 06:47

Originally Posted by jeffs

Something of note.

Quote from another Acer aspire one user.

To set a BIOS password on the Acer Aspire One, hit F2 at the boot screen, go to the Security tab and set the Supervisor Password. I did this after I installed Ubuntu so that I could secure the machine a little better. Then at some point later I wanted to change a BIOS setting. I restarted my netbook and entered the BIOS password. It returned 'Enter Current Password:?' I did this until I got locked out and had to do a hard shutdown (by holding down the power button until it powered off). Had I forgotten my password? I didn't think so.

Then I discovered two very important points regarding the Supervisor password on the Acer Aspire One.

1. No matter what you entered for the BIOS password, it gets set to all CAPS, and
2. No matter how long your password was, it only uses the first eight characters.

So, if you entered "thisisatest" for your password, the BIOS would convert this to "THISISAT". If you are locked out like I was, turn on Caps Lock and enter the first eight characters of your password. That should let you in. Then change the password to one that is all caps and only eight characters. This should minimize the chances of trouble in the future.

Try this before putting the laptop in the fridge ( new one on me after 20years in the HW biz ) . As the aser uses a capacitor not a cmos battery, pulling the battery is unlikely to work.

Shit dude!
That solved it. I did try the full password (9 letters) in caps but obviously it only needs 8.

Thanks everyone!

**3umph** · 27th February 2009, 06:49

Originally Posted by renegade master

no really? ANOTHER BATTERY? gtfo nigga. wtf will they think of next.

A brain implant for you???

**3umph** · 27th February 2009, 06:54

Originally Posted by BASS-TREBLE

Shit dude!
That solved it. I did try the full password (9 letters) in caps but obviously it only needs 8.

Thanks everyone!

good stuff.... now get rid of the dam bios password

**BASS-TREBLE** · 27th February 2009, 07:03

I have gotten rid of all passwords. And also voided the remaining 10 months warranty because I had the amazing idea of taking the laptop case of but only got as far as removing screws. My Bad.

B-T

**Lias** · 27th February 2009, 07:21

FWIW, be very careful playing around with hard drive passwords. If you set a drive password on some makes/models of laptops (eg HP's with Drivelock) and forget it, the hard drive is a brick.