Help unlocking hard drive
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From: km on 31 Jan 2008 04:15 On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:49:29 -0800 (PST), nmorson(a)googlemail.com wrote: >On Jan 30, 4:55�am, Grinder <grin...(a)no.spam.maam.com> wrote: >> nmor...(a)googlemail.com wrote: >> > I have a Seagate ST3500630A hard drive (1/2Tb) purchased less than a >> > week ago on ebuyer. And the summary is I've managed to lock it whilst >> > building an Xbox Media Centre. And I can't unlock it. I have the >> > password from the Xbox's eeprom but that's not working - neither is >> > xboxscene, the master password set by the locking/unlocking utility >> > that I used. >> >> Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive. > >I have an eeprom.bin file that was created when I first installed >EvoX. Using xboxhdm I copied a known good root drive from the existing >xbox to the new hard drive. Then I locked it using xboxhdm with the >command lockhd -a which automatically fetches the password from the >eeprom. Problem is, I think the software changed the master password >to xboxscene. I overlooked this when later rebuilding the drive again, >and tried to unlock it using the eeprom.bin file (with the old >password in it from the xbox). Even though I've now tried unlocking it >using the password xboxscene it's not interested. I'm assuming there >are a default number of attempts before the drive locks up for good, >requiring a firmware flash. > >I've located firmware for older Seagate drives, and even fairly recent >ones but not a 1/2Tb model. As a last resort I will flash it with one >of these and see what happens, although I'm fairly certain it will >brick the drive for good. Whatever you do to it you should be able to get it back to a usable state so long as there is no physical damage to the drive. In my role as helper for a charity I have received many donated drives which had a variety of operating Systems and partition arrangements. Often it is easier to use a utility downloaded from the Hard Disk Manufacturers site that enables you to low-level format (sometimes referred to as "write to zeros") the disk and start all over again. The utility is installed on a floppy disk and you make the floppy the first bootable option - then follow the options. The latest utility software will check the drive first to ensure it is a compatible disk for the rewriting process. I have no knowledge of xbox set-up, so the one proviso is that the disk you have for the X-box set up will recognise an unformatted and un-partitioned drive, and undertake that for you after carrying out the low-level formatting. km
From: Grinder on 31 Jan 2008 04:20 Grinder wrote: >> Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive. nmorson(a)googlemail.com wrote: > I have an eeprom.bin file that was created when I first installed > EvoX. Using xboxhdm I copied a known good root drive from the existing > xbox to the new hard drive. Then I locked it using xboxhdm with the > command lockhd -a which automatically fetches the password from the > eeprom. Problem is, I think the software changed the master password > to xboxscene. I overlooked this when later rebuilding the drive again, > and tried to unlock it using the eeprom.bin file (with the old > password in it from the xbox). Even though I've now tried unlocking it > using the password xboxscene it's not interested. I'm assuming there > are a default number of attempts before the drive locks up for good, > requiring a firmware flash. Just a bit more on this: If you have indeed locked the hard drive using xboxhdm's lockhd and your eeprom.bin file, then xboxhdm's unlockhd and that same eeprom.bin should work to unlock it. If for some reason, you have lost the eeprom.bin, you can use atapwd (from the DOS boot portion of the xobxhdm boot disc) to unlock the drive using the *master* password: XBOXSCENE (It's case sensitive if I remember correctly.)
From: Grinder on 31 Jan 2008 04:51 I still think that unlockhd from your xboxhdm disc can be used to unlock your drive, but I've found this site that might provide a plan B (or C): http://www.seagateunlock.com/ I see now where updating the firmware, for some Seagate models, will unlock the drive.
From: nmorson on 31 Jan 2008 05:46 On Jan 30, 9:51 am, Grinder <grin...(a)no.spam.maam.com> wrote: > I still think that unlockhd from your xboxhdm disc can be used to unlock > your drive, but I've found this site that might provide a plan B (or C): > > http://www.seagateunlock.com/ > > I see now where updating the firmware, for some Seagate models, will > unlock the drive. Many thanks for all your help. I have tried: xboxscene in lower/upper case - no joy with xboxhdm atapwd in pure DOS mode - with xboxscene password (uppper/lower case) and also by typing in key from eeprom.bin - no joy writing zeros (using a program which I forget the name of) to the drive - although this was in the Windows environment - I could try this in DOS mode Seatools - Seagates disc recovery/test program - no joy (will do basic short/long tests but not advanced, reports error - that's all) The message that atapwd is giving is 'Rejected' when I type in the password. When using unlockhd through xboxhdm I am getting 'Device ready' upon unlock but the drive remains locked. I've read on one or two xbox forums that flashing the firmware is probably the only way out, and since this is where I believe the key is stored, probably my only chance of rescue. Annoyingly I do have the original eeprom with the key - but nothing is working. The drive is being recognised by the BIOS
From: nmorson on 31 Jan 2008 16:23
MANY THANKS! to all who gave me hope in this forum and especially to Grinder who supplied the final solution (link to seagateunlock.com) to unlocking my hard drive! I've got it back!!!!!! I don't know who or where you are in the world but cannot thank you enough. Final solution for anyone who stumbles across this thread in time to come: 1. Unplugged the power to the hard drive (for 24hrs although I suspect that 5mins would've been enough) 2. Replugged the power and booted with dos boot disk 3. Ran atapwd and chose UNLOCK WITH MASTER PASSWORD and entered XBOXSCENE 4. COMMAND COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY was reported instead of REJECTED 5. Rebooted again but this time re-enabled Primary IDE as AUTO in the BIOS (if you leave this set to AUTO, all the hard drive unlocking tools I've used report DRIVE FROZEN, so Primary IDE must be set to NONE before attempting any unlock) 6. In Computer Management in Vista, Initialised disk successfully I've not formatted it yet as it will need to be formatted in FATX for the Xbox, not NTFS which Vista/XP etc. use but confident that all will work well now. The only slightly odd thing is that upon unlocking, all other hard drive unlock tools were still reporting the drive as locked (even though it was set to NONE in the Primary IDE section of the BIOS)! And atapwd wouldn't allow a low level format. xboxhdm wouldn't allow any access to format the drive either! Wierd. Upon entering Windows it said the disk needed to be initialised so I can only think that somehow the partition table became corrupted somehow. For any Xbox users, this may be because I had used Xbpartitioner on the Xbox to create a 465Gb partition using 32Kb clusters when the remaining space was using 16Kb clusters. **************************************Thankyou all************************************** |