Help PLEASE! Unknown HDD Password

So my Mom gave me a Dell Inspiron 2200 laptop and it is asking for an HDD password whenever I turn it on. My mom says she never set a password on it and I can't even format the hard drive and reinstall windows until I know the password. I have contacted Dell and they will not help me because I am not the registered owner of the laptop and they say my mom isn't either. (I am assuming it is registered to whoever first bought it, but I don't know who that is since my mom purchased the computer off of craigs list over a year ago.) My question is this, is there anyway that I can format the hard drive w/out the password or is there anyway that I can reset the password w/out knowing the current one or am I totally screwed?? Any help or advice would be greatly appriceited! Thanks in Advance…

Hi, this is a tough one……passwords are often a sensitive issue……….. If the machine has been working well in your hands now for a year without a password, then perhaps someone who has access to the machine has set one up…….? if so then you need to get them to explain exactly what they have done and the password they have used. There are ways in which even a machine with a BIOS secured password can be started, but as I'm sure you can appreciate an open forum like WTT is not the place for these techniques to be discussed. I have only 3 suggestions for you: 1 try a blank password..ie just hit the Enter/Return key and see what happens if no joy 2 contact Dell and ask them to help…registering the machine to you or your Mum as required, your Mum may need to recall the details of the previous owner so that it can be confirmed the request is made legitimately 3 Consult a local competent computer technician who will be able to help after checking that you or your Mum are the legitimate owners of the machine. It may seem annoying that folks need to satisfy themselves that you and your Mum have legitimate access to the machine, before they help, but as I'm sure you can appreciate we live in difficult times and not everyone is as honest as you, your Mum and me. Regards paws

Thank you so much for your advice…….however, I have contacted Dell and they will not register the device to me until I can cofirm the original registered owner. I even went as far as asking them if they could fax me a legal document that I could sign stating that I am the legal owner, but no such luck I am in contact with a local computer clinic in my area and am hoping that I can have them help me with this issue!! Ok….so as I am typing this response to you, I took the hard drive out of the laptop to try and use a different hard drive that I had and of course that would not work. However, when I put the original hard drive back into the laptop it says it can't recognize/detect the drive!!!! It says "The device in the system modular bay cannot be identified" Oh now what have I done??? Any advice on this one???? Thanks again!!!

Hi, Yes when you put the drive back it must engage correctly with the internal connections so you may need to slide it in and out a few times to get it just right. after a few goes the machine should recognise it OK ( assuming you haven't dropped it of course Regards and good luck paws

Hello, Have you tried to contact the former owner, the person your mum got the machine from, to find out if that person had set any Bios passwords? Even if it was bought from greig list some one had to recieve the money for the machine so you should have no trouble finding the former owner, just may take a little work.