This forum is simply stunning. I have found so much useful information already, so thank you for that.

I have recently been given a Maxtor Onetouch 600gb HDD enclosure. Not needing the enclosure, both 6v300f0 drives were transferred into a desktop machine. I then discovered that both drives have maximum level ATA passwords stored. So far none of the codes I have found from the net have been able to disable it.

I wanted to ask if there were any way without special hardware to remove the lock and secure erase the drives? Is the enclosure required? Do these Maxtor drives have unique passwords?

I must stress that I have no interest whatsoever of recovering any data. I would simply like to breathe some otherwise working drives back into life. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Merry Christmas!