I have used HDDGuru Low Level format tool many times. But on an HitachGST 2Tb, it will run
LLF but has boot drive and disk to disk clone problems. Like it's retained some data the LLF doesn't catch. It's a backup drive paired with a much newer Seagate Barracuda. I can transfer files to it but doing a clone backup is a big problem.

My question is: Is there some proprietary HitachiGST/Deskstar/ or other formatting tools available which are free? Or has a previous owner managed to encript something on it like those Enterprise HD's?