Reset HDD user password, if I know the HDD master password?
Solution 1:
I solved this problem for my own use case. Here is my observation, without any claim of deep knowledge or understanding.
I used hdparm
, following the instructions by user StudMuffin on serverfault, how to unlock a ssd disk with hdparm
Commands
The basic commands, on a Linux where the disk is connected:
hdparm --user-master m --security-unlock PASS /dev/sdx
hdparm --user-master m --security-disable PASS /dev/sdx
Before and after and between these steps, one can use hdparm -I /dev/sdx
to check the status.
I would suggest to use some kind of trick to not have the password in bash history.
I did this for all drives that were affected: The on-board iSSD, and the 2.5'' SSD.
Result / Observations
My observation confirms the first comment by JeremyS in there: The HDD master password does unlock the disk and make it completely readable again.
The BIOS now reports that no HDD password is active.
Still I stand by my report that the BIOS did NOT allow me to use the master pw to remove the user pw. Only hdparm was able to do this. I assume that technically this would be possible in BIOS, just my BIOS sucks.
I do NOT know if the HDD password actually did enable the hardware disk encryption, or if it only enabled a weak-ish lock.