Old Maxtor IDE Security : Frozen/Locked

[UzY3L]

Hello,

Before I start I would like to specify that the drive is mine, I own it. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's start :

I found this drive (Maxtor 40GB IDE) sitting in my old P3 PC, at my parent's house. It looked kind of worn, but as I plugged it in, it started booting Win98 so I thought it was ok.
As it turns out, HD Tune and HD Sentinel report 100% Health status.


However, big surprise : while I can copy/delete files from the HDD's partition, as soon as I restart, the partition remains unchanged.
I have tried almost every program out there to format/erase/delete the partitions but with no success (including HDD Guru : Low Level Format).
Also A-FF Repair Station reports that there is no password set for this HDD, which is confusing...


As I have read on the internet about this, drives like this are locked by the PC when it sleeps so I though it would be just fine if I format it using my old P3 PC. But I remembered why I stopped using that thing and that's because the motherboard got fried along with other component and the PSU during a power surge so no luck there.

After reading some more, I opened HDAT2 and it says Security status : Locked/Frozen for this HDD.

I really don't know what to do. While I do not care one bit for the info that is on it, I do care about the solution for this. It seems like an interesting subject, something I might learn from and if the drive can be unlocked I would like to donate it locally (I'm from Romania) because a 40GB IDE drive barely sells for a pack of smokes ^_^

[BlackST]

Yet ANOTHER security unlock thread ? If so , things here go in a certain way.

It seems the drive is in a "read-only" mode (malfunction) that is another issue. If the drive was REALLY locked , every attempt to read a LBA would return "ABRT" ( pink "!" on MHDD) without possibility of reading the drive content.

So either the problem was not addressed correctly or things are not as reported

[UzY3L]

Sorry guys, but you kind of did this to yourselves. Everywhere you look on the internet, when it comes to discussing any problem found with HDDs, people recommend you. So it's only natural that people, like me, make threads like this (I've seen a couple myself).

Thank you for your answer, BlackST. If so, what can I do with it? Can I offer more details?

As I said, I plan to donate the drive. There is a forum here, (Computergames Forum) in which people donate parts to other people who assemble them and donate the assembled PC to a needy family (with pictures and thanks from the families).
So, it would be a win-win. I learn something new about HDDs and somebody gets a hard drive for a new donor PC.

What I did find strange is that ATA PWD reports : HDD REJECT COMMAND whenever I try to change security settings. I cannot enter a new password (I thought that would work) and I cannot try and disable the old (if any) one, because it gives me that error.
As I said above, SMART reports 100% Health & Performance so I'm really hoping I could get this drive fixed.

edit : I even tried a MBR reset/reload/restore etc. with no effect

[SquaL]

Hi, please post screen capture of A-FF Repair Station report.

[BlackST]

Then it is a firmware problem or a blended HW + FW problem that makes the drive behave that way (seen many times, not so often on "OLD" 40 GB - maybe a N40p ?).

To diagnose it completely and to do an attempt for repair (if possible - if it is a particular kind of failure there's nothing to do) you need dedicated equipment like PC3000 or similar ( a lot of money, then ) AND know what to do (and quite for sure nobody can/will guide you).

So either you give it to the nearest pro and ask him if he can in spare time fix it (he'll know what to do) then you can donate the drive as you want, otherwise I don't see any SUITABLE option.

That's it.

[UzY3L]

Damn...I thought for sure it was something that could be easily fixed but I just didn't know how. I took a gander at PC-3000 and other stuff around here too.
Would an RS232 adapter which I used to rescue my Seagate 7200.11 drive, be of any help to somehow read the service area/firmware area of this drive?
Or is my only go with the PC-3000? Giving the drive to a professional would not be good, the cheapest data recovery firm in Bucharest charges 300E per drive, regardless of the size.

[BlackST]

The answer is no. And the price can't be that if they know what to do.

[UzY3L]

Well, ok. Thank you very much for your help, BlackST.
Have a nice day!

[UzY3L]

What is the drive model, serial number and LBA from the label. And how it reports in BIOS and disk utilities? For certain drives there are free utilities to access service area.

Thank you for your answer, SAjunky. While I cannot give you the drive's specifications because I am at work, I will post them once I get home.
As far as the drive is detected, it detects fine in the BIOS, in windows, and in any other utility.
But I noticed today, while using MHDD that it asks me for a password when trying to do a FASTERASE.

Also, here's something I did with the drive. I happened to have 3 more identical drives : same model, capacity, serial number, interface, PCB, LBA all the same. Except, those other 3 drives were full of BAD sectors. So I did a PCB swap and now the drive works fine. Can I leave it like that or would something bad happen with the heads because the PCB was swapped?

[labtech]

When you say "...the drive works fine" after PCB swap, does it mean it is no longer locked?

[SAjunky]

As far as the drive is detected, it detects fine in the BIOS, in windows, and in any other utility.

Question is whether is detected with the right name, serial number and LBA. Unless you post these details on the forum, we don't know for sure.
In MHDD is better to use zero fill. Reason is that we want to see ATA flags in response to the command.

For PCB swap requirements, might be not compatible, possibly a reason for your problem. Post here what you see on the original and replaced PCB labels, the large letters above barcode, like E4FYA
Look at the link for PCB requirements:
http://www.donordrives.com/hard-drive-pcb-donor-swap-match

Last edited by SAjunky on September 11th, 2012, 13:22, edited 1 time in total.

[UzY3L]

Hello all,

What I meant was : the drive could be erased, it no longer asked for password when using FASTERASE in MHDD, it no longer presented the SECURITY : FROZEN/LOCKED state, I triple formatted it (normal, not quick), I copied files to and off it, I deleted files, I did a burn-in test on it, I scanned it with both HD Sentinel and HD Tune, I ran benchmarks over benchmarks and writes and reads and all sorts of normal hard drive operations on it and it works fine.
No clicks or other strange sounds.

As I said before, would there be an issue in the long run, with the drive heads if I swapped the PCBs between the two drives?

edit : I will post all these details when I get home and I can take a look at the drives. But from the preliminary tests, the drive is detected in BIOS as before, with same name, model, capacity, speed, just as normal.

Last edited by UzY3L on September 11th, 2012, 13:24, edited 1 time in total.

[labtech]

Hello all,

What I meant was : the drive could be erased, it no longer asked for password when using FASTERASE in MHDD, it no longer presented the SECURITY : FROZEN/LOCKED state, I triple formatted it (normal, not quick), I copied files to and off it, I deleted files, I did a burn-in test on it, I scanned it with both HD Sentinel and HD Tune, I ran benchmarks over benchmarks and writes and reads and all sorts of normal hard drive operations on it and it works fine.
No clicks or other strange sounds.

As I said before, would there be an issue in the long run, with the drive heads if I swapped the PCBs between the two drives?

No, not in relation to the PCB anyhow.

[SAjunky]

If works, fine. I don't ask if it works on old PCB or a new one. Clean PCB contacts with soft pencil eraser, then remove debris with alcohol. Thats all.

It might be a way to revive other drives by using internal procedure callled selfscan, but you need to spend a time and learn how to repair firmware on Maxtors before starting this.

[northwind]

Stop trolling.

[UzY3L]

Thank you very much for your support. After extensive testing I have concluded that the drive is 100% ok so it will be donated. Thank you once more for your effort and support with such a small request. I know most of you are in the data recovery business and are very knowledgeable in this field which is why I really appreciate your support with such a small matter.