Unlocking(?) a Toshiba *46GSX

[Diskobolos]

Hey gurus. I've been searching for answers to this problem for the last ~24 hours straight, maybe someone here will have the heart to help me please

Okay, here's the deal:

I had an '08 Toshiba Satellite with a broken screen. I pulled the hard drive from it and installed it into my new ASUS G60 thinking I could do a quick driverhunt and be on my way.
When I powered it on, I was greeted by an ATA user/master password dialog.
I certainly never set one, and nothing I've tried seems to make the dang thing disappear.

As I mentioned I've done some research and I know that an ATA password can be tied to an individual motherboard or BIOS. But for various human reasons, I no longer have access to the original Toshiba Satellite that spawned this monstrosity (that would be an easy fix for my problem!).

I assume the password suddenly showing up when I moved the drive is some kind of vendor 'security feature,' but this is a bit ridiculous. I'm not that concerned with the drive itself, but I need the data on it; there are many personal files that I did not have a chance to back up (I never anticipated this issue and figured I would be able to access the data from my ASUS).

Oh, and ironically enough I gave my brand-new Win7-loaded ASUS hard disk away to my family, so I'm currently typing away off an Ubuntu Live Disc :p



So here's my question: is there any way -- absolutely any way -- to fix this on my own? I'm willing to get into whatever HDD firmware utilities, manual memory registering and/or hexcode if I have to.
Or failing that, what's a reliable service who can remove an ATA password without erasing the data?

I don't know if the drive is at High or Max security, since I'm running off Linux and all the scanning utilities seem to be win32 apps, but if that becomes important I'll find some way to check on it.

Thank you very much, folks, I hope someone has good news for me =)

Edit: The drive is a Toshiba MK1646GSX if that makes any specific difference. Thanks!

[Cleanroom]

hmm, there is no easy way to remove the lock from the drive. If you had the original laptop you could just use an external screen.

look for a data recovery company in your area to see if they have the capabilities for removing hard drive locks.

you could also do some research on A-FF Repair station to see if your drive is compatible with their program.



just looking at their site they say they support all toshiba models so that may be your best bet at removing the lock yourself.

[Diskobolos]

hmm, there is no easy way to remove the lock from the drive. If you had the original laptop you could just use an external screen.

Yep... :/ if only I'd known this would happen, I would have gone with that option. Like I said though, that one is out of the picture.

And I'm not necessarily looking for an easy way (though it would be nice ).

I'll learn whatever methods I have to. While I'm no HDD Guru, I'm not an average user either.
I just want to make sure it's practically possible before I go through the effort...



Edit: and thank you very much for that link! I'll make that my backup plan in case it turns out to be impossible.

[poehere]

This problem is common and nobody will give you the solution to do this or unlock this drive on your own. Many companies will not unlock this drive unless you can prove that it is yours. You will need to find someone in your area who has the tools necessary to do this work with. I do not mean standard tools I mean professional tools. Try and call a few shops for DR in your area and explain the problem to them and see what they would charge you to unlock this drive for you. Others have tried before and lost all data on their drives. So if you value this data and need it back it is in your best interest to find a shop to do this one for you otherwise you risk the chance of data loss on your drive.