aborted boot n nuke - now drive is locked

[Leozack]

A PC was running MBAN boot n nuke to erase the data, but the "time left" went upto 70h or something crazy so they turned the PC off. Then they tried HDDerase and it said the drive was locked.

I've googled around online and besides lots of ATApassword things suggesting unlock with "idrive" password I can't find anything about this problem - and if I boot the PC to HDDerase now I am not asked for any passwords or anything. What can be done? Don't tell me it's properly bricked :/
TIA

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Leozack

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[goombawaho]

You mean DBAN don't you???? Can you boot up to the manufacturer's utility CD and do a low level format or "blanking" of the disk using their specific utility???

Share with us the brand/model of the HDD.

 

[Leozack]

Yeah I mean DBAN The only other thing I tried booting was HDDerase which reports the drive is locked, so I doubt the HP cd will be able to do anything? :/ I thought there must be some way for unlock the drive starting with such an erasing program as DBAN since they're aware it can happen eg powerloss

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Leozack

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[SkipCox]

goombawaho didm't mean the pc manufacturer cd; he meant the hdd manufacturer like WD, Maxtor, etc.

Skip

 

[Leozack]

I think it's a WD but I'd have to open it and look. I'll take a peek monday I guess :\ I thought one of these wiping utils would be able to unlock it aswell as lock it?

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Leozack

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[edfair]

There is a DOS based (under debug) series of instructions to clear out the first 100 or so cylinders that might help.

Haven't got a link or the instruction list but hopefully you can find it on the web.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[PRPhx]

Have you looked here for suggestions?

http://forum.hddguru.com/hdderase-t9993.html

One thing suggested is to remove the drive and install it on another pc. Look at the 4th post down on the site listed above. Good luck!

 

[Leozack]

Yeah I've read threads like those. I didn't have a screwdriver on me so couldn't take it out and put it in a different system at the time - but I didn't feel overhwelmed to try since I saw no sort of "unlock drive" option in hdderase since hdderase is mainly a serious of y/n questions ready to go. Most people were also talking about laptop hd's so the suggestion to put them into a desktop PC seemed irrelevant to me since I'm trying to blank a bunch of desktops. But I can investigate that monday yeah

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Leozack

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[kjv1611]

Try the

http://www.UltimateBootCD.com

It's got the WD, etc, diagnostics on it, but it now also has GParted on it.

Or try a live Linux distro disk, and see if you get to it with GParted from there.

 

[Leozack]

OK so I tried the WD tools then found it was actually a Seagate drive unlike the others >_>
So I tried MHDD which didn't say it was locked and failed when I tried the master password Seagate spacespacesapce etc.
I was pretty annoyed by this point. So I tried just unplugging the power while I booted to my USB copy of Hyren's boot CD and then powered the drive and now HDDerase didn't say it was frozen anymore so I wiped it! Then I figured even if it says frozen if it works it works so I tried installing windows XP on it and it worked fine! Go figure ...
As I tried more of the batch I found more with Seagates and they ALL said they were frozen in HDDerase and required the power-out-during-BIOS workaround! So instead I used SeaTools to zerofill them and it worked fine and didn't say they were locked/frozen either. Go figure!



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Leozack

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[G0AOZ]

Glad to hear you've sorted your problem, but...

Are you saying you pulled out the 5v/12v power plug from the drive whilst it was running?

I'd be extremely carefully about doing that. Even if the drive is firmly bolted into the case, you could end up cutting power to the drive at a critcal moment, or disconnecting the 5v line fractionally before the 12v (or vice versa) and causing the interface to suffer an unprecedented spike.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[goombawaho]

That would have been my first step - IDENTIFY the drive for sure (brand/model) and use the appropriate tool. If the manufacturer's tool is available always use it above some other non-specific product AS A START. Then you can experiment if you need to.

That is, if you don't have some SPECIAL (not free) software and already have it in hand. If you need free, go with the manufacturer's stuff first.

 

[Leozack]

I was just using what I had available at the time which had good feedback online. I was given active@killdisk or something first but that just showed a texttitle and froze so I moved onto HDDerase.

And no - to bypass the BIOS lock you power the drive AFTER BIOS, you don't UNPLUG and depower the drive at any point. Yes it's risky, but it works.

Though in the end it seems to be some feature of those Seaates that can be ignored

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Leozack

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