Never seen this problem: the hard drive became read only!!!

[aaapppleee]

Seagate ST960821A 3.01
It's from a acer laptop.
I tried acronis, mhdd, seagate tool, windows 7,
it cannot be format or delete the partition,
I tried on different computers as well, the same problem!
it's still working with windows 7, i can read all files/pictures,
but i can't delete anything, any partitons, can't format,

mhdd:
eid
security: high, off

there are 4 X bad sectors in first 15%


What's wrong with it?????!!!!

[pcimage]

You tried MHDD erase with remap or "erase delays" ?

THIS IS DESTRUCTIVE TO DATA

[aaapppleee]

You tried MHDD erase with remap or "erase delays" ?

THIS IS DESTRUCTIVE TO DATA

Thank you for your reply!
I did, still the same.
for the other hdd I can use remap or erase delays, but not this one,
this drive is still working ok, but i cannot format it, connect it as a usb drive to windows 7 /xp format or delete button no longer highlighted,
and in the disk management i cannot delete the partition, no more this option,
use acronis to delete the partition, after restart the partitions are still there!!!

[dick]

If there is no installed 3rd party software or hardware designed to give this outcome, eg. something like Deep Freeze then I would suggest the drive has a firmware problem. Faulty firmware can produce this result.

[aaapppleee]

If there is no installed 3rd party software or hardware designed to give this outcome, eg. something like Deep Freeze then I would suggest the drive has a firmware problem. Faulty firmware can produce this result.

I will try to download a new firmware to try then, thanks

[northwind]

I agree with dick.
I would vote for 3rd party software like deep freeze, though.

[unknown]

I would vote for (The heads become read only).

[BlackST]

Heads OR firmware.

[fzabkar]

I would suggest that the OP monitor the drive's SMART data. Take one set of SMART data, wait for 1 hour, then take a second set. If the Power On Hours count increments, or if any of the other attributes change in value, then this would at least prove that the System Area is still writeable.

Another test that may eliminate software as the culprit would be to perform a secure erase. This relies on the drive's internal mechanisms to write to the user area rather than software writes. Of course this will be data destructive.

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

BTW, the fact that the drive was not writeable using MHDD, or on a different computer, would suggest that it is not a software security/protection issue.

Last edited by fzabkar on April 21st, 2012, 15:44, edited 1 time in total.

[BlackST]

Even simpler : turn off then on and the power cycles count increase.

BUT this doesn't mean complete functionality.

[kpeddie]

In disk management in windows, what kind of partition does it say it has on the drive?

Is it the full size of the disk? Is the disk being reported as the wrong size?