New drive for laptop

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Thanks, Ray. Yes, I'd go SSD, and it's a SATA. I know many hate Win10 but that's where I'm going....the laptop isn't for me so having it relatively standard is important.

[Bill Bridges]

My uncle had an HP laptop that I came to own after he died. The problem is that he seems to have encrypted the hard drive right from the start, so that the first screen that comes up requires putting in the password for the encryption. He hid it well. I can’t find it. It is gone. Can’t use machine because I can’t get past the encryption password requirements.

So, to recover the laptop, I thought about putting in a new drive and running from there. It strikes me that I would have to put a bios and operating system on the new hard drive, as well as whatever drivers are available for running the hardware, before I was able to boot up the machine with the new drive.

Is that accurate?

Without having any access to the current drive, and the bios residing thereon not to mention the operating system and the drivers, it seems like a fairly complicated job for recovery.

Scott,

Try this link from the HP website - https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04648973

Go to "Reset you computer when all other options fail."

[Russell Holton]

Good point. What exactly does it say on that password? It might be a boot-up password that can be reset by following procedures found on the HP website. The only disk encryption I've used is BitLocker, but that's completely transparent to the user. No need for the key unless you reset things or try to put the drive into another computer.

[Ray Tackett]

Without having any access to the current drive, and the bios residing thereon not to mention the operating system and the drivers, it seems like a fairly complicated job for recovery.

I never heard of BIOS being on the hard drive. If it's not in a hardware ROM, you'd have no way to get at the hard drive at all.

I defninitely recommend an SSD, the largest capacity for the price you're willing to pay. First, you need to find out what kind of drive you need (likely IDE or SATA). If SATA, there are several different form factors. If you have the laptop model number, you should be able to get the HD spec on line. If it doesn't make sense to you, c'mon back. Lotsta folks here, myself included, can help. I have one laptop which uses IDE, an older disk technology, but I found a SATA adapter and a mini SSD which are in a 2.5" HD case.

I find Windows 10 so desipicable that I have gone over to Ubuntu for new machines. I have old machines with XP and Windows 7. W7 is the end of my time as a Microsoft user.

Also, you might find the password is his birth date, or "passwword1234", or just "12345678", or something equally simple -- especially knowing personal stuff about him, e.g. spouse's first name, dog's name, etc.

If the BIOS Itself is password protected, there may or may not be a circumvention available on line. Can you hit escape during power-on and get into setup?

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

What OS are you planning on installing? The BIOS, or at least the critical part should be burned into the memory of the machine. Slap a new drive in, boot off the install media and you're on your way.

Window 10 will have enough drivers to get you going. Hit the HP page for the drivers for your model for better performance.

Win10 is the plan. If the bios is, essentially firmware, that's good.

[Russell Holton]

What OS are you planning on installing? The BIOS, or at least the critical part should be burned into the memory of the machine. Slap a new drive in, boot off the install media and you're on your way.

Window 10 will have enough drivers to get you going. Hit the HP page for the drivers for your model for better performance.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

My uncle had an HP laptop that I came to own after he died. The problem is that he seems to have encrypted the hard drive right from the start, so that the first screen that comes up requires putting in the password for the encryption. He hid it well. I can’t find it. It is gone. Can’t use machine because I can’t get past the encryption password requirements.

So, to recover the laptop, I thought about putting in a new drive and running from there. It strikes me that I would have to put a bios and operating system on the new hard drive, as well as whatever drivers are available for running the hardware, before I was able to boot up the machine with the new drive.

Is that accurate?

Without having any access to the current drive, and the bios residing thereon not to mention the operating system and the drivers, it seems like a fairly complicated job for recovery.