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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 6:10 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
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
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jermy
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 6:20 
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Joined: March 19th, 2015, 15:01
Posts: 1388
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myhddisbricked wrote:
Is there any way to fix this?

the term bricked is a very wide term, you'll have to explain more than that
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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 6:25 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
jermy wrote:
myhddisbricked wrote:
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.
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day1data
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 6:51 
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Joined: January 6th, 2015, 2:21
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Location: Germany
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.

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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 7:06 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
day1data wrote:
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.

day1data wrote:
Are the drives detected by BIOS?

I'll have to look.

day1data wrote:
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.
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drHDD
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 15:33 
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Joined: October 5th, 2015, 18:53
Posts: 488
Location: US
If you put power to drive - is it spinning?
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guru
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 17:07 
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Joined: May 5th, 2004, 20:06
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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..

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All went well until I plugged the drive in.
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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 23:45 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
guru wrote:
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???
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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 7th, 2016, 23:46 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
drHDD wrote:
If you put power to drive - is it spinning?


Yes, it's spinning
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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 8th, 2016, 0:44 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
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.
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myhddisbricked
 Post subject: Re: Secure Erase bricked both of my HDDs! What to do?
PostPosted: January 8th, 2016, 3:18 
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Joined: January 7th, 2016, 6:01
Posts: 7
Location: United States
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
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