Question : The System Primary HDD is protected by a password authentication system.

have a Dell inspirion 8100  and I cannot access my WinXP operating system because the following message appears after pushing my ON/OFF button:  “Hard-disk #********** - 595B, the system Primary HDD, is protected by a password authentication system. You cannot access data on this drive without the correct password. Please type in the hard-drive password and press .”
Then a message appears: “Primary hard disk drive 0 not found. No bootable device(s) selected. Strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility.

Answer : The System Primary HDD is protected by a password authentication system.

Depending on the laptop, specifically the ones that have coin cell batteries for the bios, can be reset and you can use a new hard drive with. The problem lies in have to take apart the laptop to remove the battery and reset. I had a Gateway laptop recently from one of my customers that locked themselves out of the bios and the hdd. I painstakingly took apart the laptop and removed the battery, powered up the computer (while it was still in pieces on by bench) and reset the bios password. This will not remove the hdd password as stated above it is impossible to remove.

I would suggest doing some research on your specific laptop to see if it has a coin cell battery that can be removed to reset the password. I would hate for you to completely take it apart and find out you wasted a couple hours for nothing.