HDD GURU FORUMS

Hi

I'm new to this site. I been refurbishing n repairing ipods for about a year now. And i always run a surface scan on the hdd before i put it back into the ipod. However the Toshiba MK8010GAH and new Toshiba MK8022GAA seen to have some sort of lock or password on it. It is detect by BIOS but does not display in windows and no DOS software can access the drive. I used load of software to try and remove the password and it does not work.

MHDD says broken drive
KillDisk just dont do anything
MHD3 comes with some error
Wipe Tool/ Low format Tool wipes/formats the drive completely but still cant be accessed

Tried a few other software ......... but still no luck

I have also tried my friends PC3K board and that does not unlock it. (old PC3K) I think its an apple mac password on it but not sure. Could be some sort of hardware lock on the drive so they can only be used in iPods or Zunes? They work in iPods and i can format them in windows via the iPod, but i want to zero fill the drive and do a surface scan.

Can anyone help me please??

Is this drive the ZIF ribbon cable connector? Maybe you need to set master/slave/CS jumper on your adapter?

Yes, it is ZIF connector. I have try that, but still cant access the drive.

Is it possible for Toshiba or Apple to put some sort of hardware lock on these drives so they can only be used in iPod and Zunes?

I have seen a similar problem with this drive series on at least two occasions.

In our cases we removed the drives from two different small Sony Vaio laptops and they were working 100%. Then we used a ziff to ide converter and formated them in a windows pc. When we put the drives back into the Sony Vaios the drives were not even seen in the bios. Reconnecting the drives to a PC through the ziff converter showed the drives working.

We never found an answer or solution to the problem. I wonder if there is a connection?

What were the Hard drives you formatted?

They could certainly do some sort of custom firmware craziness but that seems like a lot of work without much point.

Have you attempted to get in touch with toshiba or apple to ask about it?

I have not, but i think my friend has. He said that its a apple mac password on the drive and apple wanted wanted like £4k to give him the software to remove it. But i dont know if this is true.

Have anyone in this forum be able to use a Toshiba MK8010GAH or Toshiba MK8022GAA from a ipod or zune in a PC? I want to know if its just the drives i have or if they are all like this. ?

Im going to contact apple or toshiba to see if i can get an answer.

I think Toshiba does have a good reason to do this. I think they are losing money because people are buying their cheap oem apple branded hdd for pc (that are really made for mp3 players only) and not buying the original retail ones that are much more expensive.

I'm not sure about the iPod drives, but the new Zune's drives have a 4K sector size, instead of 512 bytes. When I tried hooking it up to my PC, it acted very funny, since I'm assuming Windows XP wasn't designed to work with disks with that sector size.

Acting funny like how?
Did it show up in Windows?
Could you access the drive and reformat it?

It would detect the drive in the BIOS, but in Windows the drive would sometimes appear, sometimes not. I was never able to figure out how to get it to work with Windows.

They were both Toshiba branded.

When you try to remove the password with PC3000, do any of the error lights come one (e.g. ABRT) ?
If it does, then the drive is rejecting commands used to reset the passw. Does PC3000 actually indicate that the drive IS password protected ?

<itch>

Hi

It come up with some russian words , which i believe says locked. I will check it again in the evening to see if it comes up with any error lights.

Thanks

Hi

I have found out that the drive have a sort of special firmware on it. Does anyone know how to remove a HPA/DCO area without using the PC-3000 UMDA?

http://blog.atola.com/restoring-factory ... -capacity/
http://www.hdat2.com/

I'm sure there are others, but both the above get the job done for free.

I have tried HDD Capicty Restore. Did not work. I will try HDAT2 after xmas.
thanks

Hello,

I am having the same problem with the MK8010GAH

I have this ZIF drive connected to a IDE converter.


Windows does not see this drive. Mac OSX sees the drive, but cannot format or partition it.

DOS does not see the drive. BIOS sees it as "unknown drive"

I have tried several programs off the "Ultimate Boot CD", none will wipe or partition this drive.

Some programs see the drive and report "Toshiba MK8010GAH", and I notice telltale drive activity via HD LED, so I know that the drive is capable of access.

Now, I am trying "HDAT2 v4.5.3" - Initiated WIPE DRIVE - Status = write error - 'selected device is hung - reset required' --- however, the program is still processing sectors... very slowly - now at 18KB after 15 minutes

I will let it run and see what happens, maby it will speed up and complete the WIPE.

If not, then there must be a better way, and more info on this.

Can anyone suggest a program, paid or not that can partition/reset this drive? for sure?

Later all...

joshua

Well, I gave up an HDAT2, it's stuck on errors.

Tried "SwissArmyKnife" partitioner, reported to erase hidden partitions. The program sees the drive, like so many others, but it reports the standard in/out error when trying to partition.

I wrote a note to Toshiba support asking them for the program that will let me erase the hidden / locked partition. Hopefully, they will respond.

joshua

Currently trying Linux http://partedmagic.com/ ...reported to work somehow under the 'testdisk' menu.

Partedmagic does not detect the drive, but the 'test disk' program inside does. I'm doing the 'analyse disk' function under 'test disk' right now. Looks like it will take several hours, then... I don't know what will happen.

Go here for more info:

http://www.computing.net/answers/window ... /2013.html

Linux may be the answer, but I am far from an expert. We need an expert... Help!