Wired HDD Problem to Solve!!! Help

No, the password protection on this type of drive is written into the controller board, you cant access the drive at all until you type it in.

Can't a boot from the CDROM before it even gets to the hdd give control to the BIOS first, then let XP smack it?

Funny a program can cause this much of a problem, and take control from the BIOS...

No no no, you don't understand. It is in the FIRMWARE of the hard drive. It is not a program or anything written to the hard drive, it is PART of the hard drive.

From re-reading the thread It's pretty confusing...he has used it for years...just had the problem after rebooting...installed a new program...but your right all the symptoms point toward a progam on the drive. Maybe we're not getting all the story.

unfortunately.. I can't even format it. the point is, i cannot access it. not even low level format. or zero filling. that is why i come to the decision on buying a new HDD.

i say you stick it inthe microwave and see what happens

Well..

This seems pretty weird and most likely as i read in the whole post the prob is caused by the program that you installed.

But anyway atm it's not so important where the prob came from it justhas to be solved so I'm thinking about to quick solutions here :

1-

I have a seagate aswell, and i know you can download a program from seagate website wich you can put ona floppy if i remember right. It's a program to managing your HDD, ( partitioning reformatting ans so on)

I would try that and see if it works

You can find the prog here http://seagate.com/support/software/

2-

If that still doesn't work i would get a copy of Knoppix Linux. With that you will be able to boot into a Linux environment and acces your HDD.
You can then use the fdisk command to format your HDD.
You will loose all the info but you will be albe to reuse the disk ( not that it's much useable atm :p )

Hope this helps GL !

Again. It's not a software lock. It's a firmware lock that's actually *built-in* to all ATA3 compliant hard-drive controllers.

http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/man ... 153r17.pdf

The HD controller doesn't allow read or write operations while the disk is locked. So, you can't format, you can't fdisk, you can't low-level format. You can't do anything. This is because the *ATA controller* will not allow it.

After reading the above pdf I agree with you that it's a firmware problem...I'm curious to know why did it lock? The drives are sent unlocked from the manufacture. How do you get in to reset the password, it talks about commands to the controller (p-66), but where do you initiate those commands?

Yes i know what a firmware is but you never know what windows in some way is capable of

Besides the program i stated above is from seagate exactly to manage HDD's and prolly also a tool to upload/reinstall new firware.

I can't even access it.what is the point of having the tools from seagate?Anyway, I tried that also and it fail. I thought i work in the past and I have tried it. however, it fail.

I ask seagate and they tell me that they did not set any password or in other word, they dun have the master key.

can 't seagate exchange it for a new one ?

ha ha ha ha.... you must be joking

What if u make it a slave drive and boot up? will it require password?

yup... on my pc. i have another hdd. i install os to it. and set the faulty one as slave. it prompt me for password. i bring it to another pc, it does not prompt me for password but i can't access the HDD.