Portege R400 - how to get fingerprint device to resume HDD unlocking

Question

Portege R400 Model PPR40E-00901LEN
I have had this laptop since new in (approx) 2007. I set the BIOS and HDD passwords and the biometric device to unlock BIOS, HDD and Vista. This has worked fine till recently. Following an incident when someone tried to crack into the machine it will no longer unlock the HDD
The attacker has confessed to using backspace to circumvent the fingerprint scan, correctly guessed the BIOS password, and went on to make several attempts to enter the HDD password.
Now when I try to access the machine using the fingerprint scanner, it unlocks the BIOS ok, so it clearly still remembers me. However it does not unlock the HDD. Apparenlty the fact that 3+ failures to enter the HDD text password forces text entry of this password rather than biometric. At least it seems to be something like that.
My questions are
1) in these circumstances, has the BIOS told the biometric device to forget the HDD password?
2) Or is the piometric device still aware of my HDD password but the BIOS is not asking it?
3) If 3 or anything similar, so that password is still in the biometirc device, how do I tell the device to resume delivering that password?
Please note, I cannot get into BIOS at present, because failing to unlock the HDD prevents the POST from completing.
Of course, I know what I should really do is to type in the HDD password; sadly in four years or so I have forgotten it. I expect I can get into BIOS if I physically remove the HDD, but wonder if there is anything else I need to do first to avoid making things worse.
Thanks in hope
River~~
Message was edited by: river14april
Message was edited by: river14april: typos and clarity
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Answer 1

hi Akuma.
Please, I know you are trying to help me, and it would be churlish of me to seem ungrateful, but...
I already know that the copy of the HDD password in the HDD is inaccessible. But this is a Q about the biometric device (fingerprint rreader), not directly about the HDD.
There is (or certainly has been) a second copy of the HDD password stored in the laptop for the last four years, in the biometric unit. That is how it logs me in.I know the biometric has not been wiped entirely because it still logs me in to the BIOS ok.
I am trying to ask about *the* *biometric* *copy* of the HDD password, not about wiping the password *from* the HDD itself.
Q1: Is there a way to tell the biometric to resume providing the HDD password to the HDD without having to re-enter the HDD password to the biometric?
Q2: If I power up with the HDD removed,, will this cause the biometric unit to erase the copy of the HDD password WHICH IT STILL HOLDS? Please only answer this sub-question if you definitively know the answer
Q3: does anyone know definitively that the BIOS tells the biometric to wipe its own copy of the HDD password when there are three failed attempts to enter the HDD password from the keyboard?
regards, River~~