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Posted By: lansyp help with pata hard drive - 19th Oct 2011 8:08pm
hi all .just got a hard drive for my laptop but when i put it in the lappy it came up with "enter hdd password"and yes i dont know it (no wonder it was a fiver ).so i know this can be master unlocked but is there a master password and if so where do i find it cheers paul
Posted By: lansyp Re: help with pata hard drive - 19th Oct 2011 8:12pm
oh yes the model no is seagate st93015a
Posted By: TheDr Re: help with pata hard drive - 19th Oct 2011 8:53pm
If there's nothing on it you want drop it in at my place tomorrow and I'll clear it for you.

Is the password definitely on the hard drive and not the computer itself ?
Posted By: lansyp Re: help with pata hard drive - 19th Oct 2011 9:38pm
yes i got the hard drive of my daughters boyfriend he thought it was his nephew who passworded it,but he doesnt know the password either .will get the wife to drop it or will drop it about 4.30 cheers
Posted By: TheDr Re: help with pata hard drive - 19th Oct 2011 10:23pm
No problem, just tell whoever you give it to that it's for me and I know about it.
Posted By: lansyp Re: help with pata hard drive - 20th Oct 2011 7:09pm
Dr sorry didn't get a chance will do tomorrow or Saturday cheers mate
Posted By: TheDr Re: help with pata hard drive - 24th Oct 2011 10:24pm
Drive is ready, wiped and formatted for you to use smile
Posted By: lansyp Re: help with pata hard drive - 24th Oct 2011 11:01pm
Cheers doc will see you tomorrow
Posted By: diggingdeeper Re: help with pata hard drive - 25th Oct 2011 12:28am
Good luck with this, ATA specifications are two passwords and two security levels. The only time I've come across a drive being password locked it had exceeded its maximum number of tries and was permanently locked (as per ATA specifications). Only cure is to put a new board on the drive.

Hopefully this one hasn't got to this stage.
Posted By: TheDr Re: help with pata hard drive - 25th Oct 2011 12:47am
Seems to be okay, he had no personal files on it as it was a second hand drive, so once I'd cleared the passwords had a quick nosey to make sure I could read all three partitions before I deleted them.
Posted By: diggingdeeper Re: help with pata hard drive - 25th Oct 2011 12:52am
I've forgotten the utility (I think you recommended it), unlocked the drive and the status came back as unlocked but it wasn't really, if you ran the program again the status was still locked.

Fortunately most drive manufacturers don't implement the ATA specs fully, but sod's law said the one I had, did grrrr.

Another set of magnets for my drawer wink
Posted By: lansyp Re: help with pata hard drive - 26th Oct 2011 8:26am
Cheers doc haven't tried it yet but it did come up as recognised cheers
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