Breaking in to a Harddrive

[Stu]

Alan Dayley wrote:
> If the hardware manufacturer implemented the ATA spec correctly, the
> password cannot be bypassed by any normal means.  That is, after all,
> what the password is supposed to do.
>
> With special knowledge of the specific hard drive model, not just the
> manufacturer, the model and even the specific firmware, one can find
> where the password is stored and erase or nullify it.  Oh, and you
> might need special equipment to get to that password on the platters.
>
> To put it another way, throw this hard drive away and go buy a new
> one.  It'll be less costly of your time.
>
> Alan
>   
I have to agree with Alan on this one. If you have a passworded laptop 
hard drive, you might as well toss it and buy a new one. I had one that 
I experimented with just to see if I could wipe it out entirely, and had 
no such luck. I even exchanged the board with an identical drive, and in 
the end ran strontium magnets over the disk itself (like I said, it was 
just an experiment - I didn't need the drive, and it was useless to me 
as it was)
Big NADA~ The password is stored in a special section of the disk 
itself, and is virtually impossible to get rid of by any means available 
to ordinary human beings.
Save yourself the headaches, and get a new drive from Newegg or Geeks. 
They're cheaper than your wasted time.

    Stu
> On Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 8:51 AM, James Finstrom
> <jfinstrom at rhinoequipment.com> wrote:
>   
>> Greetings All,
>> So my dad bought a Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 and apparently the drive is
>> password locked at a hardware level and requires some sort of voodoo to
>> report back anything other than vendor data. Anyway I guess there is a byte
>> code you send to the drive and then a password then you live happily ever
>> after. Needless to say we don't have the password. I am sure there is data
>> on the drive but none that we own so don't care if all data is lost. Looking
>> for suggestions on breaking in or clearing the drive. Again total data loss
>> is ok.  Tried DD in case it was in the partition table and no dice..
>>
>> --
>> James Finstrom
>>
>>
>>
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