Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?

[myhddisbricked]

So, today both of my HDDs bricked because of my computer freezing while using the Secure Erase option that's included in the Parted Magic Linux distro. Is there any way to fix this?

My HDDs are:
Western Digital WD1600BEVT
Toshiba DT01ACA100

Thanks in advance

[jermy]

Is there any way to fix this?

the term bricked is a very wide term, you'll have to explain more than that

[myhddisbricked]

Is there any way to fix this?

the term bricked is a very wide term, you'll have to explain more than that

Bricked as in my HDDs are not able to be written to. I forgot to mention that I'm getting Input/Output errors.

[day1data]

Its unlikely that secure erasing the drives have "Bricked" them. Secure erase is merely just writing zeros to the drive or a pattern of data to make sure the previous data cannot be read.

Are the drives detected by BIOS?

It could be that in the secure erase process that the software run into some bad sectors on the drive and simply doesn't know how to handle them and cannot proceed further, which is why is would have frozen.

[myhddisbricked]

Its unlikely that secure erasing the drives have "Bricked" them. Secure erase is merely just writing zeros to the drive or a pattern of data to make sure the previous data cannot be read.

It states that if powers goes down that there's a possibility of your HDD becoming bricked.

Are the drives detected by BIOS?

I'll have to look.

It could be that in the secure erase process that the software run into some bad sectors on the drive and simply doesn't know how to handle them and cannot proceed further, which is why is would have frozen.[

I did a secure erase on my WDC two weeks ago before installing Windows 10, and my bad sector count was the same as two weeks ago, so I don't think that's true.

[drHDD]

If you put power to drive - is it spinning?

[guru]

Secure erase only writes to the drive in user mode, nothing special.

Because your drive probably failed during erase it is possible that the password used by your software has left the drives in a locked state..

[myhddisbricked]

Secure erase only writes to the drive in user mode, nothing special.

Because your drive probably failed during erase it is possible that the password used by your software has left the drives in a locked state..

You're right! I'm using an older version of Parted Magic, and in the warning it says "If system power is lost during the erase procedure, the result will cause the drive to be placed in a locked state, thus preventing I/O access." I believed that my HDD was bricked because I was using a newer version of Parted Magic that had a different warning. That version wouldn't run a secure erase, but the version I'm using now is running a secure erase without any problems. I'm guessing that the older version I'm using unlocked my HDDs???

[myhddisbricked]

If you put power to drive - is it spinning?

Yes, it's spinning

[myhddisbricked]

Okay, my WDC1600BEVT has finished it's secure erase and I'm no longer getting Input/Output errors when trying other wiping options, and it's no longer locked.

[myhddisbricked]

Update: Problem Solved... fix below

I finished doing a secure erase on both of my HDDs with an older version of Parted Magic, which unlocked my HDD, and now I'm able to read/write to my HDDs. My problem is solved, and thanks to everyone that tried to help.

Here's a guide that I found where someone tried the same steps as me which unlocked their HDD. It also features other options that will unlock your HDD if Secure Erase fails.

Archive link to the guide posted. Guide's located at post #11