HDD ATA Security Password Removal

[mickelle]

Hello to All Members,

The Forum is excellent...., but The English is not my mother-language and I apologise in advance for some errors in my writings.

I have been trying to solve the problem:

Some (probably virus) or some Attacker has locked HDD Maxtor Diamond 60GB by acitavating ATA Security Password (both:Master and User) and set it on maximum level. No one software could´nt

access the disk, even though MB BIOS does. Some things I have done (using diferent kind of DOS based software) with the result:

The WXP has recognised the drive and he is on the HDD list but invisible.

The HDD is still and locked, is´nt ready yet. That report has given by some of software I have used.

I would appreciate your considering upon my herein writings. If someone has The answer, please do it.

mickelle

[XL-DJK]

It sounds to me like you'll ultimately have to do a full end format////consider using a Linux based formatter or do a Low Level format. You should bea able to get access to the drive thru Disk Management as well. If you CAN access the drives, of course you'll want to do a full diskcopy before formatting

Edited April 13, 2008 by XL-DJK

[bj-kaiser]

If its really locked per ATA security feature and you dont have at least the master/admin password to unlock the drive, you are out of luck I suppose. Depending how the drive is configured you may need to do a "security erase unit" first (which overwrites the whole disk).

[jaclaz]

@XL-DJK

NO, there is NO generic "low level" format of ANY kind capable of restoring a locked drive, one needs special utilities, and besides one would lose any data on the drive.

@mickelle

I assume you tried the program(s) at Rockbox:

http://www.rockbox.org/lock.html

without success.

Each manufacturer has it's own ways, some need a hardware devoce besides the appropriate program, see these just as an example:

http://hdd.profesjonalnie.pl/to.php

http://www.pctestpro.com/disktest/hddrock.htm

(rather expensive!)

Most probably, IF your drive is listed here:

http://www.hddunlock.com/

this is the most cheap possibility.

You can actually try following this thread to attempt to "brute force" the password:

http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?nam...wtopic&t=15

(post by "Member")

http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?nam...15&start=67

but cannot say whether it would work and in what time, maybe hours, maybe days, maybe years!

AFAIK there is no Freeware generic solution....

jaclaz