Jim Watt wrote:
> On Sat, 09 Jul 2005 20:40:57 GMT, "a.draper" <a.draper@verizon.net>
> wrote:
>
>
>>As the finder of some unclaimed lost property, I came into possession of an
>>IBM ThinkPad 40r with WinXP-Pro OS.
>>Unfortunately it has a Power On Password, three attempts and you're locked
>>out. I've tried the service manual solution i.e.: remove the cmos battery,
>>as well as short the pins to clear the bios but the POP doesn't clear. If I
>>interpret it right this means a supervisory password was also set. I don't
>>care about the drive contents, I just want to wipe it and install my own OS.
>>Can I do this, or will I have to buy a new drive? Does the POP reside in HD
>>or the bios itself? I'm not much a computer geek, but I'm willing to try.
>>It's a freebie anyway.
>
>
> If the HD password has been set you will have to get a new
> HD.
>
> Try clearing the password with the drive removed. Its generally
> easy to get out with IBM thinkpads. New drives are cheap
> enough and removing a disk password is theoretically possible
> but I haven't managed it yet.
>
> There are data recoveery companies with a solution but the cost
> is a lot more than a new drive.
> --
> Jim Watt
> http://www.gibnet.com

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try. As I stated, I'm not
interested in the data,I just hated the idea of throwing away a
perfectly good 30g HD. I was concerned if I bought a new HD something in
the BIOS might render it unusable. I'm not very technical, but working
on something that is basically usable is very liberating.If I do get a
new HD should it be the identical model as the old one?