Help! Vista has locked my Hard drive!!!!

PhillyDee

PhillyDee

PhillyDee

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:eek:.

Not good . . .
Wiped my 300Gb Velociraptor with the Vista x64 DVD and reinstalled it. Installed GFX/Chipset drivers and restarted. Removed the disk and it completely fails to load windows. Just comes up invalid system disk etc. etc.

Inserterd my Ultimate Boot CD only to find that running any sort of Diagnostics brings up
Drive Is Locked Code 0220
Password: Set
Password level: Maximum
Security Mode: Locked

The WD tools will not do anything at all.

In Maximum security mode, you cannot unlock the disk! The only way to get the disk back to a usable state is to issue the SECURITY ERASE PREPARE command, immediately followed by SECURITY ERASE UNIT. The SECURITY ERASE UNIT command requires the Master password and will completely erase all data on the disk. The operation is rather slow, expect half an hour or more for big disks. (Word 89 in the IDENTIFY response indicates how long the operation will take.)
Click to expand...

Does this mean its fubar? I have no idea.
My BIOS has no provision for seperate hard disk locking or similar. Its a desktop, not a laptop.

Any ideas what I can do? And HOW THE HELL has this happened?

:(
 
Ran atapwd and its asking for passwords. I havent ever set one, the ones I set for my admin windows password are rejected and im at a complete loss.
 
Wow, I've just done some reading around this issue. None of it good news and I never saw one single solution offered that worked. I'd never heard of it before either, but it seems it's impossible to unlock without having the original Lock Code - which may not even exist if some corruption caused the HD to be locked in the first place. I think you'll end up RMAing this drive unless someone comes up with a really clever answer...
 
Yeah, its a pickle . . Ive just fired off a question to WD, I will see what their response is. I was wondering if this extensive gaggle of knowledgeble people on this here very forum have come across it before too.
 
Can you not access it at all stupid question but have you put the vista install disk in and tried repairing the installation if so did that see anything or recognise you had vista installed.
 
Nothing but sector errors. Cannot read the disk. It looks as though it partitions it, but when it tries to write the mbr it has access errors. The drive is completely locked out. Talk about security! There doesnt seem to be any way around it. Looking around on google for that error leads a lot of dead ends. Apart from paying a few hundred ollars to get it unlocked.
 
From what I can see, it's a feature included by WD as a service to OEM manufacturers to enable them to lock a disk - tie it in if you like - to a specific piece of equipment. Once set you cannot take the drive out of the machine and access it in any other without forst unlocking it. It's a useless feature to include in a general purpose device, and if it gets set accidentally impossible to remove.
 
Not just WD.
Question
Do Western Digital EIDE drives support hard drive locking?

Answer
Current Western Digital ATA/100 EIDE drives support the ATA/ATAPI-6 specification, including the security mode settings. Some vendors use the security feature to ensure the usage of only specific drives in their system. The drives can also be locked by a third party utility. When a drive is locked using the ATA security mode settings, the same utility and the original code used to lock the drive are necessary to unlock the drive. If your drive has been locked, we recommend that you contact your system vendor or the manufacturer of the software utility that was used to lock the drive for assistance.

Its part of the ATAPI 6 spec. Some password protection!
 
I suppose you already went here : ? http://www.hdat2.com/
The utility seems to suggest you can unlock the drive

{edit: forget it, can't without Master Password}

Master Password: Seagate Barracuda ST3200822AS 200gb
by anisan96 on Sun Jul 13, 2008 6:37 pm

Does anyone know, or where I may find the master password to unlock my Seagate Barracuda ST3200822AS 200gb Sata drive (using HDAT2 or ATAPWD), which suddenly decided to lock itself.
I have tried all the generic master passwords online but to no avail. So I am assuming either Seagate are using fresh master passwords, or that Packard Bell are using their own master password in the drives firmware.
The machine is a Packard Bell IMEDIA 1902, Cheers.anisan96

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Master Password: Seagate Barracuda ST3200822AS 200gb
by cbl on Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:07 pm

With freeware programs no (if this password is not a generic one).
You need a specialized SW like PC3000 or any data recovery company which can do that.Best Regards

HDAT2/CBL
 
Last edited:
ATAPWD is easy to get but on it's own is useless.
The only thread I found where success resulted was:
_______________________________________________
I recently unlocked my Western Digital harddrive with the WDC password even though it gave me an error.
I read this on some a website and ,yes, it works.
(I did it and I'm using the HD right now)

-put DOS on a floppy disk
-add atapwd.exe to the disk
-turn off the computer & connect your Western Digital hard drive.
-turn on the computer and inset floppy
-type atapwd.exe after A:\
-when the menu loads click on your harddrive
- >Prepare Erase
- >Erase
-enter the password " wdcwdcwdcwdcwdcwdcwdcwdcwdcwdcwd "
-It should come back with an error, press enter and the hard drive name will disappear from the list
-DO NOT RESTART-...Your harddrive is being formatted.
-Let it sit at that screen for 30mins
-Afterwards, press the F5 key(refresh) and the hard drive should reappear on the list
-restart...and it'll be unlocked.

I don't know if that will help your problem but I hope it helps someone. :thumbsup:
 
That's worrying to say the least, what an irritating feature. I'm thinking of doing a format, my system drive is a 150gb RaptorX. I run Vista x64 Business, did you come across any methods of preventing this from happening? Do let us know what WD say and good luck with your RMA.
 
Shash said:
That's worrying to say the least, what an irritating feature. I'm thinking of doing a format, my system drive is a 150gb RaptorX. I run Vista x64 Business, did you come across any methods of preventing this from happening? Do let us know what WD say and good luck with your RMA.
Click to expand...

Still waiting for a response to my query. (Within 24 hours my arse)
I think this is an incredibly rare thing to happen and I very much doubt that Vista is responsible. I think its more likely to be some sort of failure on the drive itself.
The machine was not connected to the net (Drivers were not installed for the network card yet) so it wasnt a hack/attempt. Even googling the error its usually laptops that have been locked out by the BIOS as a security feature that someone has forgotten the password or as a way of unlocking XBox drives or similar. I think this is a 1 in a million chance and that I have been unlucky in the extreme.
 
Just an update, After a couple of emails to WD, They decided it was time to RMA.

Dear Phil,

Thank you for your reply.

I see that your drive is still under warranty. I would recommend that you have the drive replaced because the drive is failing.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,
Rocio B.

So its getting sent back. Seems like a very strange thing to happen . . .
Ive been using a WD 500Gb drive and its really slow compare to the velociraptor. Its even noisier! And I have my drives bungee modded.
 
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