Does anyone know how to format an encrypted hard drive?

[anthonyaudi]

Hello, so I am in a little bit of a jam.

I have a hard drive that came from a broken machine. Problem is the hard drive has a password on it.

I can't do anything with the drive if I put it in the same model machine it came from and try to boot it it gives me a password prompt if I don't enter the right password twice then the machine halts.

I tried to put it in another machine as an external drive and Windows does not detect it. It sees the drives but it sees it as offline or not initialized.

I tried it in Ubuntu and Ubuntu sees it but when I do Fdisk in Ubuntu it does not see the drive to format.

I am in a little bit of a slump here I know the drive works but I cannot format it to get the encryption off it.

Anyone know of any software that could bypass any passwords the drive might have on it and just format it?

I was told gdisk would work but I have no idea how to use Gdisk so I wouldn't even know where to start.

My biggest problem is because I can't boot this drive off any other machine (it is from a tablet pc so the pin outs are not standard) I can only have this drive in either the same kind of machine or as an external drive.

I'm completely stumped on this one anyone know of any kind of software that can just allow me to format this hard drive?

Thanks~

[Sp0iLedBrAt]

Hi.

First off, this post should probably be in the "Hardware hangout" section.

Have you done a simple google search? I got plenty of hits by entering "format encrypted hard drive", and it seems you have quite a few possibilities.

Cheers

[anthonyaudi]

Thanks for moving the thread I didn't know there was a section for this

http://dban.sourceforge.net/ I have tried this I cannot get it to work.

I have tried this

go into command prompt
then type "diskpart"
type "list volume"
then "select volume xxx" (where xxx is the write protected problem drive)
then type "attributes volume clear readonly"

Diskpart does not see the disk

http://hddguru.com/software/2006.04.12-HDD-Low-Level-Format-Tool/ <--also does not see the drive.

http://www.extend-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html <--this sees the drive but I cannot do anything. I cannot format the drive it tells me every sector is a bad sector. I can wipe the data from the drive which takes like 4 hours however once wiped I still can't do anything. I believe it would be because the encryption is still on it.

Edited November 11, 2010 by anthonyaudi

[jaclaz]

Forget anything else.

Check if it has an ATA/ATAPI block password (likely).

Read here:

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

http://web.archive.org/web/20020807003206/http://www.upsystems.com.ua/support/alexmina

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

A Secure Erase pre-made is part of the UBCD:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

jaclaz

[anthonyaudi]

I am at a loss. No matter what program I use I cannot get this drive to unlock.

I tried the Ultimate CD

A few of the programs see the actual drive, I can format the drive but when I pop it back into the X41 it still asks me for a password.

I have no idea what to do anymore.

I came across a program called atapwd but when I try to start it up it does not detect the drive.

The drive is out of the machine and attached to my machine via a USB adapter.

Am I missing something here?

Why is it so hard to unlock this drive?

[jaclaz]

The drive is out of the machine and attached to my machine via a USB adapter.

ATAPWD and similar software ONLY work when disk is connected "natively" through a ATA interface, with NO adapter/converter in the middle.

They "talk" to the disk drive at a "lower level" which is NOT implememented in USB drivers/controllers.

Mind you that if the "X41" is a IBM/Lenovo laptop, it is very possible that you are hitting against the laptop in-buiit password (and not the ATA disk one).

As always to give you ANY further help, we need DATA, and DETAILS, make/model of disk/PC/whatever hardware involved, we are not (yet ) mind readers.

jaclaz

[anthonyaudi]

Ok so I finally got a little adapter to get the drive into a desktop.

The drive as far as I know is from an X41. It is not in an X41 and in a regular machine.

I tried atapwd and I cannot unlock the drive. I am not sure what to do.

I also tried a program called hdderase, basically this program tells me I can't do anything unless I have the password to the drive.

So I am asking myself should I consider this drive garbage and assume that it cannot be unlocked or is there a brute force way of doing it or a software that i can load up that will unlock the drive.

Im going to try the bucd again maybe i missed something

[pankaj]

Hi.....is the partition encrypted or the hdd?

if it's the hdd then hdd manufacturer should have a tool.

if it's the partition then a low level format should do the trick

you can try DBAN or HDDGURU

http://www.dban.org/

http://hddguru.com/software/2006.04.12-HDD-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

[anthonyaudi]

when i check the drive status it says it is locked.

i went to hitachi site and tried to download the drive fitness test however when i run the utility it tells me that any operation i am trying to do i cant because the program is designed to run on a hgst drive and my drive is not.

im frustrated :s

[jaclaz]

I also tried a program called hdderase, basically this program tells me I can't do anything unless I have the password to the drive.

The HDDerase aka secureerase here:

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

right?

Yes, you need to know the password for it.

So, it is definitely an ATA password, right?

If it is, you may need a Commercial program, like:

http://www.hddunlock.com/

Or a professional tool like:

http://www.hdd-tools.com/products/rrs/

(examples)

or PC3000 and the likes.

I don't know of any "free" method.

jaclaz

[anthonyaudi]

Unfortunately A-FF does not support the Hitachi drives.

HDD Unluck detects the drive as locked but cannot unlock it for whatever reason.

I looked at the technical specs for pc 3000 and it says that it supports unlocking of the drive but I'm not really sure how to download it. Or how I would use it for that matter there seems to be a whole kit that comes with it.

Anyone have any info on how to make this program work?

[jaclaz]

Unfortunately A-FF does not support the Hitachi drives.

HDD Unluck detects the drive as locked but cannot unlock it for whatever reason.

I looked at the technical specs for pc 3000 and it says that it supports unlocking of the drive but I'm not really sure how to download it. Or how I would use it for that matter there seems to be a whole kit that comes with it.

Anyone have any info on how to make this program work?

Last time I checked an ORIGINAL PC-3000 (from Ace labs, NOT a cheaper Chinese "clone") retailed for around US$ 3,000.00.

The half @§§ed Chinese copies that usually come with obsolete software and NO support, should be available fo less than US$ 1,000.00.

It's simply not worth it.

A lot of firms will unlock your drive for fifty bucks or so, but the drive itself (since you don't care about the DATA) is worth maybe 20 US$.

jaclaz

[anthonyaudi]

ya thats exactly the thing, i dont really care about the data i just want the drive to be unlocked. It is worth like a few dollars the drive but if I can do it myself I will do it.

But if I can't I won't do it.

I just don't want to chuck a perfectly good drive because of a lost password you know what I mean.