The password derivation algorithm for Dell BIOS passwords has been reverse engineered. You should be able to generate the master password to unlock the laptop using free tools like https://bios-pw.org/ (In case anyone has this issue in the future and finds this answer, you shouldn’t pay for a password unlock, the sellers are likely using free tools to generate the password anyway)
iFixit sells a SATA to ATAPI cage for the hard drive. You'll get slightly slower speeds than via a SATA connection, so if you're thinking of installing an SSD I would move the spinning hard disk to the cage. The photos shown in the guide after step 16 are incorrect, as they reference the SATA optical drive included on newer MacBook Pro models.