Does anyone know how-to unlock TravelStar

[achech]

Hi Gents,

Just bought a 2.5" TravelStar 40GB disk from eBay, and found it was locked by password inside the disk... Tried several ways(zero the disk, low=level format...etc.) but no any success.

Does anyone know how-to unlock it? Any comment will be appreciated.


Cheers,

 

[satrow]

Comment? - return it to the vendor?

Andy.

 

[achech]

Well, that is one of the option, but just cost too much...

I paid the disk for CND$100, but IBM is asking US$85 plus round shipping(US$30-40) for unlocking service...

;-(

Cheers,

 

[micker377]

Contact who you bought it from. If they don't have the password, contact EBay about defective merchandise.

 

[TekTippy4U]

Contact who you bought it from. If they don't have the password, contact EBay about defective merchandise.

Exactly!
Report that rat bastard

TT4U

Notification:
These are just my thoughts....and should be carefully measured against other opinions.
Backup All Important Data/Docs

 

[KiloZ]

I agree with these guys - return the defective drive. I'd bet the seller sold the drive in the first place because it was locked and he/she didn't have the password either.

Just as a personal thing, but I never buy used computer equipment from eBay - for just this type of reason. With the low cost of most computer components these days, why hassle with used (and potentially broken or worn out) parts? Not to mention the fact that used = no warrenty.

All great accomplishments were once considered impossible.

 

[diogenes10]

achech
You can look at the link I posted in thread751-854691. This is the most extensive discussion I was able to find about this issue when looking several months ago. I dont think the odds are in your favor of finding a solution other than IBM so if you can get your money back through the ebay complaint process-even with the time it will take, I think that would be the best approach. I have decided that the novice is going to spend money on computer education one way or another--either by paying repair techs directly or by loosing money on experiences like this.

KiloZ
Ahh, but eBay is part of the excitement of computer buying. I've had a good and a bad harddrive experience and have bought a couple of good used computers there.

-------------------------------------
It's 10 O'Clock ( somewhere! ).
Are your registry and data backed up?

 

[achech]

diogenes10,

Thanks for those info, I tried those methods already before I posted this topic, but none of them working... ;-(

So far the only way I found to unlock it (without sending for unlocking serivces) is get another same model of HDD, boot from it and swapping the disk body to erase the security lock in the plate... That's too risky to try.

I'm still looking for different method to get it unlock, and I'll post here if I'm lucky.


Cheers,

 

[krasmussen2]

Don't do what achech say, this password is á part of ata standard, and stored in some chip on harddisk. you can not unlock it yourself.

 

[lesgray]

Hail Mary option. If you have access to a Macintosh computer that has an IDE interface and a laptop HD to regular IDE adaptor, you can try initializing that sucker on the Mac. If it is not a hardware based lock, then it may format and then you can put it back on the PC and do with it as you will.

Les Gray

http://www.creartec.com

 

[achech]

Krasmussen2,

Yes, I know this password protection is part of new ATA standard, it acutally store the password in the protect sector on the disk.

Once the disk bootup, it'll check your password and compare with it's own record in that sector; the IDE drive will disable itself if the password doesn't match, means whatever your ATA command send from(Mac,UNIX,...etc), the ide drive will not respond to the command.

I read some topic from UK, said someone successfully bring the drive back by swapping disk body. So far I'm still looking for a dead drive(Model:IC25N040ATCS04-0, P/N:07N8364) for testing... heheh... It's not worth to buy a working one and take this risk.

Cheers,

Achech