{"id":1665,"date":"2017-05-10T01:07:42","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T23:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.atola.com\/?p=1665"},"modified":"2026-05-06T07:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:40:19","slug":"extracting-password","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/","title":{"rendered":"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>[Update 2022]<\/p>\n<p>Atola keeps developing <a href=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/products\/insight\/password-removal.html\">Atola Insight Forensic<\/a>, forensic data recovery tool that is capable of Seagate password removal via COM port.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Insight can recover and\/or remove unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.<\/p>\n<p>When a device is connected and identified as locked with an ATA password, there is a corresponding <em>PWD<\/em>\u00a0indicator displayed in the port, and <em>Security Status<\/em> in the <em>Home<\/em> page says<em> Locked, High <\/em>or<em> Locked, Maximum<\/em>. High and maximum are password protection levels that the operator who locked the device selected. Although information about it may be relevant to the investigator, both security levels are supported by Insight&#8217;s password recovery functionality, therefore this information is not important for the purpose of this guide.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1669\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"901\" height=\"789\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png 901w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page-150x131.png 150w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page-300x263.png 300w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page-768x673.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To perform a complete Diagnostics, Insight needs to have a hard drive unlocked. Therefore we suggest that when dealing with a locked device, password recovery is performed before running the <em>Automatic Checkup<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1666\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/password-recover-diagnostics.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1012\" height=\"967\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/password-recover-diagnostics.png 1012w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/password-recover-diagnostics-150x143.png 150w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/password-recover-diagnostics-300x287.png 300w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/password-recover-diagnostics-768x734.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1012px) 100vw, 1012px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Password Extraction, Reset and Reset until power cycle<\/h3>\n<p>Under <em>Device Recovery<\/em> category of the left-side menu select <em>Password Recovery<\/em> subcategory. There are 3 options\u00a0of dealing with a locked hard drive:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">display the password without unlocking the device<\/span> at this moment, click <em>Extract<\/em> button. This option does not require write protection on the source port to be switched off.<\/li>\n<li>To <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">work with the data on the drive without permanently resetting the password<\/span>, tick <em>Reset Password until power cycle<\/em> checkbox and then click on <em>Reset<\/em> button. This way write protection stays enabled on the source port, and no changes can be made to the drive.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>NB. If Reset Password until power cycle option is selected, no power cycles that are executed in the course of automatic checkup, imaging or other operations will affect the temporary unlocked status of the device. Only a deliberate power cycle, such as clicking on Power button, will change the Security status of the drive back to Locked.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Finally, to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">permanently unlock the device<\/span>, switch off write protection and then click on <em>Reset<\/em> button.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1667\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Password-recovery.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"869\" height=\"713\" srcset=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Password-recovery.png 869w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Password-recovery-150x123.png 150w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Password-recovery-300x246.png 300w, https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Password-recovery-768x630.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 869px) 100vw, 869px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For the list of hard drives currently supported by Insight&#8217;s automatic password recovery, please follow <a href=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/products\/insight\/supported-drives.html\">this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Please note that\u00a0this guide is applicable to all supported Samsung, Toshiba and Western Digital hard drives. To unlock a Seagate drive, please <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/connecting-seagate-drives-to-disksense-unit\/\">connect the device to the Serial port<\/a> of the DiskSense unit and then follow the same steps. Hitachi drives require the use of the password extraction adapter: for more information please follow <a href=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/products\/insight\/manual\/hitachi-safemode.html\">this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Update 2022] Atola keeps developing Atola Insight Forensic, forensic data recovery tool that is capable of Seagate password removal via COM port. Insight can recover and\/or remove unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated. When a device is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password - Official Atola Technology Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Insight can extract and\/or reset unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA-passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password - Official Atola Technology Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Insight can extract and\/or reset unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA-passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtolaTechnology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-09T23:07:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-06T05:40:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Yulia Samoteykina\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@atola_insight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@atola_insight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Yulia Samoteykina\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Yulia Samoteykina\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f5faf6ed7d19bbc113d3d54fd30b6820\"},\"headline\":\"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-09T23:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-06T05:40:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\"},\"wordCount\":420,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Atola Insight Forensic\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\",\"name\":\"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password - Official Atola Technology Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-09T23:07:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-06T05:40:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Insight can extract and\/or reset unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA-passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Atola Blog\",\"description\":\"Atola Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Atola Technology\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Atola_technology1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Atola_technology1.jpg\",\"width\":840,\"height\":689,\"caption\":\"Atola Technology\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtolaTechnology\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/atola_insight\",\"https:\/\/ua.linkedin.com\/company\/atola-technology\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f5faf6ed7d19bbc113d3d54fd30b6820\",\"name\":\"Yulia Samoteykina\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae740994d03c863e03a5172c3c242ddb?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae740994d03c863e03a5172c3c242ddb?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Yulia Samoteykina\"},\"description\":\"Director of Marketing Yulia believes that with a product that is exceptionally good at solving tasks of forensic experts, marketing is about explaining its capabilities to the users. Yulia regularly represents Atola at DFIR events, holds free workshops and webinars about Atola imagers functionality and advocates on the users' behalf to ensure that Atola keeps on adding value and raising the bar for the industry.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/author\/yulia-samoteykinaatola-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password - Official Atola Technology Blog","description":"Insight can extract and\/or reset unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA-passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password - Official Atola Technology Blog","og_description":"Insight can extract and\/or reset unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA-passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.","og_url":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtolaTechnology","article_published_time":"2017-05-09T23:07:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-05-06T05:40:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png"}],"author":"Yulia Samoteykina","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@atola_insight","twitter_site":"@atola_insight","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Yulia Samoteykina","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/"},"author":{"name":"Yulia Samoteykina","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f5faf6ed7d19bbc113d3d54fd30b6820"},"headline":"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password","datePublished":"2017-05-09T23:07:42+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-06T05:40:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/"},"wordCount":420,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png","articleSection":["Atola Insight Forensic"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/","url":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/","name":"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password - Official Atola Technology Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png","datePublished":"2017-05-09T23:07:42+00:00","dateModified":"2026-05-06T05:40:19+00:00","description":"Insight can extract and\/or reset unknown HDD passwords (also known as ATA-passwords) and for most hard drives the unlocking process is fully automated.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blog.atola.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/resetting-password-home-page.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/extracting-password\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Extracting and Resetting an Unknown ATA Password"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/","name":"Atola Blog","description":"Atola Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Atola Technology","url":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Atola_technology1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Atola_technology1.jpg","width":840,"height":689,"caption":"Atola Technology"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AtolaTechnology","https:\/\/x.com\/atola_insight","https:\/\/ua.linkedin.com\/company\/atola-technology"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f5faf6ed7d19bbc113d3d54fd30b6820","name":"Yulia Samoteykina","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae740994d03c863e03a5172c3c242ddb?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae740994d03c863e03a5172c3c242ddb?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Yulia Samoteykina"},"description":"Director of Marketing Yulia believes that with a product that is exceptionally good at solving tasks of forensic experts, marketing is about explaining its capabilities to the users. Yulia regularly represents Atola at DFIR events, holds free workshops and webinars about Atola imagers functionality and advocates on the users' behalf to ensure that Atola keeps on adding value and raising the bar for the industry.","url":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/author\/yulia-samoteykinaatola-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1665"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8028,"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1665\/revisions\/8028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}