I have a Samsung HD501LJ drive (CR100-13 firmware), which was running on a 3ware RAID card. One day the controller gave me the following errors and made the host computer slow down till only a hard reset helped.

Dec 03, 2010 02:59:53PM (0x04:0x0025): Cache flush failed; some data lost: unit=2
Dec 03, 2010 02:59:47PM (0x04:0x0025): Cache flush failed; some data lost: unit=2
Dec 03, 2010 02:59:35PM (0x04:0x0025): Cache flush failed; some data lost: unit=2
Dec 03, 2010 02:57:16PM (0x04:0x000A): Drive error detected: unit=2, port=3
Dec 03, 2010 02:57:16PM (0x04:0x0009): Drive timeout detected: port=3

After the hard reset the 3ware didn't detect the card. I tried it in various computer with the following results:
- ICH7 based computer: wanted a password at POST when the hard drive was plugged in, didn't detect the hard drive in windows
- Nforce3 based computer: made the computer slow down, the drive was visible, but CRC on all sectors (in windows tools)
- SATA USB caddy: detects the drive, doesn't make the computer slow, but CRC on all sectors (in windows tools)

In all windows tools it returns CRC - error 23 for all sectors. It doesn't see any data from any windows tool. SMART works fine, and it says 1 bad sector (it was like this before), and it has no other SMART problems.

The drive spins up normally. None of the windows utils produce any seek noise, except when starting HD Sentinel, which produces a little seek noise. On the other hand, the short SMART self test produces some loud and bad sounding noise. I have uploaded a recording from the start up, seek noise when starting HD Sentinel and the weird noise when on short SMART self test.
Recording on-line: http://snd.sc/hJv2Cp

Tomorrow I will check it in a ICH9 based deskop and I'll try the DOS based utilities. Can you help me what should I do from the symptomps I've written? If nothing helps I still have access to an other HD501LJ, but it's firmware is CR100-12. Luckily Samsung has a firmware update for these drives, but I don't know if it's enough if I just update the firmware or I need to have matching components. I don't want to do any harm to the drive, I just want to try possible ways to save a dd image out of it. If it's not possible to solve with a simple PCB swap I'll take it to experts.

Scan it in MHDD (DOS).

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odzyskiwanie danych z dysku

It's much more clear in MHDD. It says: "WARNING: THIS DRIVE IS LOCKED BY ATA PASSWORD"
And finally scanning doesn't say CRC error, but it says ABRT for all blocks.

So I might need to remove the password from this HD501LJ. But how did it get a password? It was running from a 3ware RAID card under Windows, there is no way it could have a password set. I am 100% sure there was no virus or anything which could have set a password. Is it possible that a drive gets locked to a password without any reason?

Could you help me what should I do next? Shell I try to swap PCB from CR100-12 drive (flashed to CR100-13)?

Try a search, there was someone else with this same problem with 3ware controller in the last day or two

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

I tried A-FF Repair Station. It says the drive is: Locked, High. After diagnosing, it said that it can unlock it if I buy the license.

But I'm sure that there must be some easier way to solve it, I hope to find some information regarding 3ware locked drives. I am reading loads of search results, I will post back in a moment.

OK, I found a nice article from 3ware, explaining that their 9500S controller (that's what I have) locks the drive. This is the article:
https://www.3ware.com/3warekb/article.aspx?id=13502

They suggest:
3.) Launch HDAT2
4.) Select the drive in "Device List" screen
5.) Select "Security Menu"
6.) Select "Unlock device" (this combines UNLOCK and DISABLE PASSWORD)
7.) Type 'I' to select "Identifier:Master"
8.) Type 'F' once to select "Fill char: 0x00". Do NOT enter a Password.
9.) Type 'S' to unlock device.

What I would like to ask is that is it safe to do the following? I mean I know there are ways to ERASE the drive, including the locked password, but I would really like to keep my data. Will this thing be safe to my data?

OK, after reading through all search for 3ware password and reading 3wares article, I could finally solve my problem.
- 3ware's own utilities didn't work (produced errors)
- HDAT2 didn't work (produced errors)
- hdparm solved it!!! The key was to unlock user password first, then master password, then power cycle.

For the record, here is the correct hdparm command which saved my drive:
hdparm --security-disable "3wareUserPassword " --user-master u hdb
hdparm --security-disable "" hdb

No other combination worked for me. It seems no other problem is present, on bootup filesystem appeared and now I see all the files.

Good job

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You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

A small update (it seems I cannot edit my own post):
The correct line for the user password is:

With exactly 15 spaces after 3wareUserPassword.

And here is the article that helped.
https://www.3ware.com/3warekb/article.aspx?id=13502