Data Clinic - Data Recovery Services
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Call Us Free: 0800 151 2207
  • Data Recovery Home
  • Data Recovery Services
    • Hard Drive Recovery
    • External & USB Drives
    • RAID / Server Recovery
    • NAS
    • SSD
      • SanDisk SSD Data Recovery
      • Lenovo SSD Data Recovery
    • SD Cards
    • Mobile Phones & Tablets
      • >How The Process Works
      • Android Data Recovery
      • iPhone Data Recovery
      • Samsung Data Recovery
      • Sony Xperia Data Recovery
      • Nokia / Windows Data Recovery
      • Water Damaged Phones
    • CCTV & DVR
    • Macs
    • Windows Computers
    • Lost & Deleted Files
    • Advanced Forensic Data Recovery (ADR) Services
    • Password Recovery
    • Forensic Investigation
    • Encrypted Volumes
      • Bitlocker
      • Check Point Endpoint
    • Bitcoin, Crypto & NFT Wallet Recovery
    • Tape Recovery
    • Tape eDiscovery & Conversion
    • Advanced Recovery Service
    • Spare Parts & Donor Drives
    • Disk Manufacturers
      • Seagate Hard Drive Data Recovery
      • Western Digital Hard Drive Data Recovery
      • Toshiba Hard Drive Data Recovery
    • SCSI Data Recovery
    • SQL Recovery
    • How Do Hard Drives Fail ?
  • Locations
    • Belfast
    • Birmingham
    • Bristol
    • Edinburgh
    • Glasgow
    • Leeds
    • Leicester
    • Liverpool
    • London – Central
    • London – City
    • Manchester
    • Newcastle
    • Northampton
    • Sheffield
    • Southampton
  • Help & Advice
  • News
  • About Us / Contact

Recovering data from hard disks that use ATA password protection

Overview:
Data security is a growing concern amongst organisations and individuals. Encryption methods, BIOS passwords and password protected files are becoming more common, in fact practically every device seen by Data Clinic now has some kind of protection system in place, from easily by-passed Windows User passwords to hard to crack encryption methods and even steganography.

This page looks at the ATA password protection method and how to identify devices protected in this way.

ATA Password:
An ATA password (also known as the ATA Security Feature Set) is part of the ATA specification and allows two 32 byte passwords to be set on the drive; a User Password and a Master Password. This protection is normally only implemented on laptop hard disks but as part of the ATA specification can be implemented on any hard disk the behaviour is the same regardless of the type of ATA hard drive.

The protection is normally activated by setting the user password with the Security Set Password ATA command (setting of the Master Password allows to override the User Password only and will not lock the device). Once this command has been issued and the power is cycled or the device is otherwise reset the disk is locked. The disk in this state allows no access to its data and accepts only a limited number of commands, such as, for instance, Identify Device, Serial Number etc.

There are two different security levels detailed in the ATA specification, High and Maximum. If the hard drive is protected using the High security level either the Master or the User password can be used to unlock the drive, however if the security level is set to Maximum only the User Password will enable unlocking of the drive.

A drive that is locked using an ATA password will appear in the BIOS normally displaying all the information that you would expect to see such as the drive model and serial numbers but will refuse to boot, dependant on the particular BIOS being used you may or may not be informed that the drive is password protected or provided with a prompt at which to enter a password.

Contact Data Clinic:

Proven
Success Rate


Learn More

Free Advice
and Consultation


Learn More

Nationwide
Recovery Centers


Learn More

Identifying drives that have an ATA password:

There is no simple way of doing this, however if the following points apply to your hard disk it may well be possible that an ATA password is set, should these apply please contact Data Clinic immediately and ask to speak to a technician:

  • Drive identified correctly in the BIOS (Includes displaying of Model Number, Serial Number, LBA etc)
  • All sectors inaccessible (for advanced users giving the ATA status ABRT)
  • Inability to Boot into Operating System (Usually giving an error similar to ”DISK BOOT FAILURE” or ”PRIMARY HARD DISK FAILURE”.)
  • Dependant on the type of BIOS used you may be prompted for the password or even told directly that the hard disk is password protected.
  • Operating System install disks and DOS bootable floppies will hang when accessing the hard disk and will give error messages when attempting to access the hard disk.

Removal of an ATA password:

Removing a forgotten or unknown password from a hard disk is no simple task, whilst all of the data is intact and stored normally on the surface of the platters, the drive”s firmware will not allow access to the data. Removal of unknown passwords has to be attempted by professionals with an in-depth understanding of the way the hard drive works and the changes that are necessary to bypass the security settings and access the data. Recovery of data is not be possible by changing the PCB of the hard drive as the password is stored in the firmware zone on the drive”s platters.

Please Note:

Certain drives can develop problems that can lead to them behaving like they have an ATA password set, these drive types are known to us and detailed elsewhere on this site. Please always discuss with one of our technicians any case of a suspected ATA password on a drive that contains important data, it may be that a firmware corruption or other problem is giving the impression that the drive is protected, attempts to reset the password in these cases can lead to permanent irreversible damage.

LONDON
68 Lombard Street
EC3V 9LJ
Tel: 0207 111 0964

New London House
EC3R 7LP
Tel: 0207 111 0964

BELFAST
The Mount, Belfast BT6 8DD
Tel: 0282 024 7021

BIRMINGHAM
11 St Pauls Square, Birmingham B3 1RB
Tel: 0121 629 0436

BRISTOL
Castlemead, Bristol BS1 3AG
Tel: 0117 322 6585

EDINBURGH
St Andrews Square, Edinburgh EH2 2AF
Tel: 0131 242 0037

GLASGOW
Tay House, 300 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JR
Tel: 0141 301 1677

LEEDS
Building 3, City West Business Park, Gelderd Road, Leeds, LS12 6LN
Tel: 0113 254 9741

LEICESTER
3rd Floor, St. George's House, 6 St George's Way, Leicester LE1 1QZ
Tel: 0116 319 0115

LIVERPOOL
Horton House, Exchange Street East, Liverpool, L2 3PF
Tel: 0151 268 5255

MANCHESTER
The Pavilions, Bridge Hall Lane, Bury, BL9 7NX
Tel: 0161 761 0620

NEWCASTLE
116 Quayside, Newcastle, NE1 3DY
Tel: 0191 447 1227

NORTHAMPTON
400 Pavilion Drive, Northampton, NN4 7PA
Tel: 01604 529356

SHEFFIELD
The Balance, 2 Pinfold Street, Sheffield, S1 2GU
Tel: 0114 208 6027

SOUTHAMPTON
Basepoint, Andersons Road, Southampton SO14 5FE
Tel: 0114 208 6027


(c) 2020 Data Clinic Ltd - Data Recovery Services. Click to visit Data Clinic's DATA RECOVERY homepage.