Scenario: I buy old PC/laptops, fix it and then resell them. I recently got a laptop at an auction with the whole system password encrypted McAfee Endpoint Encryption. Windows does not even load. I don't have the username/password as it was bought at an auction. I read some encryption related threads, and somehow realized I was doom with the laptop.

Question: Is there anyway I can maybe re-install an operating system over encryption/ format the drive for the laptop be usable again??

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2 Answers

Yes, you could still use this laptop after you reformat the hard drive. Two options for doing that are:
1. Pull the hard disk, and reformat it using another computer or a forensic disk appliance.
2. Use a bootable disk utility tool such as DBAN or Clonezilla to boot the laptop and wipe the attached storage device.

The second option is probably the easiest for you, as all you'll need to do is download the ISO, burn it to a CD/DVD, put it in the laptop in question, and then boot from the CD/DVD drive. Once the drive is wiped, you can then reinstall the original operating system on the unformated disk.

The McAfee Endpoint Encryption stuff (pre-boot encryption) is loaded only after the system reads your HDD, same as WinMagic. You have to interrupt the boot process to get to the BIOS before the system tries to boot from the HDD.

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