Bypassing Password

I have been trying to get my RISCOS 4 computer to work after many many years.
It fired up beautifully but I can’t remember the password.
Is it possible to bypass the password or reset it without knowing the original password.
Thanks 🙂

Password?

Might be the FSLock module? Or, note, it is referring to RISC OS 4 so maybe something additional there? (like this)

It looks to me like Jeremy is a spammer. The email address associated with the account doesn’t have a history of spam, but:

1. it’s a RISC OS 4 computer, not specifying the model;
2. it fired up beautifully after many years? Really?
3. he needs a password, but doesn’t mention what the password is for;
4. he doesn’t come back here.

it fired up beautifully after many years? Really?

Well, we live in hope that somewhere there a machine that was left unused a while that didn’t suffer a battery meltdown…

But, yes, the lack of follow-up would support the theory. :(

Ha. I have an A3010 from 1992 in beautiful condition on the outside. I hope it’ll fire up beautifully. I’m sure the RTC battery will be okay…But do you think I should get around to checking it sometime? That’s if I can get around the bloody password manager.

GGG

I also have an A3000 that still works. After the A3000 I bought this RISC PC I think it is called. Running RISC OS 4. I used Prophet business software and did some word processing on it. It starts and shows the desktop. The hard drive is named but I can’t remember the password to access what is on the hard drive. Any ideas ? I hoped the forum would be useful, thanks. Jeremy

The hard drive is named but I can’t remember the password to access what is on the hard drive. Any ideas ?

Hold down the Delete key while powering-on. You will have to hold down the key for something like 30 seconds while the machine boots.

• If the system boots to Supervisor mode (a * command prompt) this has worked. See below for what to do next.
• If the system boots to the desktop, this hasn’t worked. The most likely issue is that a hardware interlock (on the Risc PC motherboard) is still set. For instructions on how to fix this, see page 113 of the Risc PC welcome guide.

Assuming you are at the Supervisor prompt, you can get back to the desktop as follows:

*configure filesystem adfs
*configure idediscs 1
*configure drive 4
*configure boot

Now press Ctrl-Break to restart. This should boot to the desktop.

Some of the configuration settings (e.g. timezone) may still need altering, but that’s easily done.

Wow Jeremy you have an A3000 that still works. There may be hope for my A3010 yet. I’ll take a look at the RTC battery as part of my next project. It’d be cool to get photos on this forum. Is your machine holding its time okay (when it’s not connected to the Internet?). I also have a RISC-PC here, with a podule in it which connects the disc. That definitely had a password that I set to access it. The disc and podule came with a password manager element where I set my disc access password. So I too need to remember a password from around 1997. Do you have backups of the disc? You know because if you find, as an absolute last resort, a way to reset your password to restore disc access but doing so will very likely wipe your disc.

Dunno if Jeremys setup is similar to mine but by no means am I a hardware expert but I’s guess the password isn’t held on the disc interface podule but in the associated disc/partitioning software. If so would it be fairly easy to crack that password from the software directory? I’m not volunteering sorry but I’m not as clever as others on this forum.

GGG? I’ve just googled that lol I think I was looking at wrong acronym.

Afaik on the RPC there is a jumper inside.
If you set the jumper, it resets the password.
As long as the password is active, you can only acess the public folder on the harddisc.

If you meant this. Else i can not help.

I am fairly sure it is a hard disc partition that is protected by a password.
How do I access the “jumper” and what do I do with it ? Thanks

I am fairly sure it is a hard disc partition that is protected by a password.
How do I access the “jumper” and what do I do with it ?

You only need to worry about a jumper on the RPC motherboard if you’re trying to remove an FSLock password. FSLock merely makes the disc read-only: by the sounds of things you cannot access the disc at all.

Mention has already been made in this thread of disc add-ons (i.e. an expansion podule with a disc drive attached). These could have the “disc lock” software in the podule ROM, which would be more difficult to bypass.

Does the Risc PC have any expansion podules fitted? If so, do they have any identifying markings (either externally or on the PCB)?

These could have the “disc lock” software in the podule ROM,

Good call Stuart, from memory some drive interfaces allowed passwords and a quick web search shows the popular APDL Blitz interface allowed a password per partition, as did their Parallel Port system.
Chapter4 section 4.7 might be bad news if the drive isn’t read-only:
“…once a password is set up it will not be possible to unprotect the drive without using it”

“Make sure you don’t forget your password. If you do you will not be able to use the drive. It is possible to disable password protection but it is very difficult and can only be carried out by our engineers. If you forget your password we may be able to unprotect the drive for you but we reserve the right to charge for this service.”

Edit
On the assumption it is an ADPL IDE drive, I do wonder whether David went for the simple method of utilising the available IDE volume attributes for the protection.
If so, one of the standard cloning utilities should be able to copy the disc content to another disc for experimentation with clearing the read only and hidden settings.

I’ll just throw in here – Simtec IDEFS also supports password protection of the partitions, and I think with the same “don’t forget the password” warning.

Might also just be using simple setting of the IDE drive volume attributes.
Possibly worth someone with such a drive inserting it in a PC and checking the volume settings?
As an extra drive on a Windows system DiskPart will show you the info with “list volume”

It might be worth posting a picture of the password prompt: someone will probably recognise it and then we’ll know what sort of password we’re dealing with.

Be sure to capture the entire screen, not just the window.

Ok. So this is getting quite serious/valuable as the hard disc quite likely has valuable copies of files on it. Which I really need to access.
Please suggest a person or business who could either reset the password or who could remove the drive and access/copy what is on it. And a price to do that work.
I could deliver the computer to them.
I’m in the Chesterfield area.
Many thanks, Jeremy

The obvious solution is to pull the important files from your backup.

What sort of interface is the harddisc connected to? Chris asked (just above) for a screenshot of the password prompt so we know what we’re dealing with.

However, generally, if the password is part of an interface (RapIDE, Morley, Simtec, etc) then practically speaking a recovery may be possible by low level hacking an image of the harddisc in another machine (to locate where the password is set and clear it). Note that this will require a lot of deep information about the format used, so going to your local PC outfit is unlikely to be useful.

In real terms, you probably won’t be able to unlock the drive. Password protection is there to keep people out.

You may be able to connect the drive to a different machine and low level copy it and try to figure out where the bits of the files are. But, yeah, good luck if that’s the way you have to go.

Fair enough, thank you. I’ll try to get the machine running again and photo the desktop.

Please suggest a person or business who could either reset the password or who could remove the drive and access/copy what is on it. And a price to do that work. I could deliver the computer to them. I’m in the Chesterfield area.

You could try RISCOSbits www.riscosbits.co.uk as they are quite close to Chesterfield. Andy was happy to visit me in Derby to deliver a new machine and to collect, fix and deliver my Risc PC.

I’ll try to get the machine running again and photo the desktop.

A good photo of the podule inside the RiscPC would be useful while you’re taking photos. Also, the results of a *Podules command.

I (R-Comp) would be happy to investigate the machine if you can get to South Manchester area – I have tended to cover the northern half of the country for quite a while, with CJE doing the southern side. However, as Paul says, RISCOSbits is now more your side of the pennines, so is probably easier to get to. As with any RISC OS company, best to contact them/us beforehand, as most of us don’t have traditional high-street shops. ie. make an appointment before heading out.