[boulders]

If it's the Windows user account that's password protected, you could use Winternals ERD Commander to change it.

[Dr Some-what Evil]

Since its not the actual BIOS that is locked, you could possibly run a low level format tool from a external cd drive and wipe the whole drive then reformat/reinstall fresh. I haven't tried this to see if it would work but its worth a shot and possibly cheaper than buying a whole new drive.

[dexters_lab]

why not just find out who the laptop came from in the first place and ask them what the password is or get the person who bought it to call dell?

[holmes4]

Originally Posted by Dr Some-what Evil

Since its not the actual BIOS that is locked, you could possibly run a low level format tool from a external cd drive and wipe the whole drive then reformat/reinstall fresh. I haven't tried this to see if it would work but its worth a shot and possibly cheaper than buying a whole new drive.

This won't work. The password protection is in the drive electronics - it will not allow any access to the drive without the proper password. Furthermore, the BIOS will insist you supply the password when you boot no matter what device you boot from.

As for calling Dell - they won't be able to help. If the person who set the password can't or won't provide it, the only option is to buy a new drive.

[Circs]

I haven't pulled a mini apart but there should be a way to reset the bios. There will hopefully be a small battery you can remove/button to press to clear the cmos. I possibly a paperclip access hole to reset it? Strikes me as really stupid if it didn't have one.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... #wp1179886 Worst case is that you have to do this.

Also, looking at mine there appears to be a paperclip reset hole under the touchpad towards the front, dead center. I don't need to reset mine, but poke a paperclip in there and see what happens. :mrgreen:

[sircharles]

Originally Posted by dexters_lab

why not just find out who the laptop came from in the first place and ask them what the password is or get the person who bought it to call dell?

Yeah, that's weird that someone got a laptop, bothered to set a password for it, then gave it away without providing the password, isn't it? And now they can't be contacted? Not so great a gift, I guess.

[holmes4]

Originally Posted by Circs

I haven't pulled a mini apart but there should be a way to reset the bios. There will hopefully be a small battery you can remove/button to press to clear the cmos. I possibly a paperclip access hole to reset it? Strikes me as really stupid if it didn't have one.

Also, looking at mine there appears to be a paperclip reset hole under the touchpad towards the front, dead center. I don't need to reset mine, but poke a paperclip in there and see what happens. :mrgreen:

Um, don't do that. That hole is the microphone. There is no BIOS password reset - if there were, it would be trivial to bypass. Few notebooks have such a thing.

However, even if there were a BIOS password reset, it would not help. The password in this case is NOT a BIOS password - it is a password requested by the disk drive itself. This is a feature that was added to IDE (and I assume also SATA) a few years ago. The drive tells the BIOS it wants a password and the BIOS asks the user for it. If the drive (not the BIOS) doesn't get a password it likes, then it simply refuses to allow access to the data. If it were as easy to get around as some people think, it would be worthless as a security measure.

As for the battery - yes, there is a button battery on the underside of the mainboard. Removing it won't help here.

[somms]

Holmes is absolutely correct :!:

Even if it was the BIOS password protected instead of the SSD, removing/replacing the Coin-Cell Battery would function the same as reseting to defaults within the BIOS. BIOS passwords would still be retained since they are instead stored within NVRAM...

[Circs]

I was reading the replies and I think I got turned around one too many times as to what was actually going on. :lol:

I know my stuff for the most part I just have a short attention span, use small words. Why's the microphone underneath the mini then?

[somms]

Originally Posted by Circs

I know my stuff for the most part I just have a short attention span, use small words. Why's the microphone underneath the mini then?

From the attached .pdf for the Mini, pay close attention to item #4 the Integrated single analog microphone