I have been reading through this thread and a few others trying to get past the SATA password on my drive, I really don't care at all for the data as this drive was pulled out of a PVR box that I no longer need and the 500GB HDD would be a nice spare one for my desktop.

Thought this would be simple, but I cannot get the scripts to work for MHDD. I get a drive reported error and currently running ZU.exe but this is taking for ever and not a lot happening. tried WDR demo and that is unable to do this (maybe due to trying to run it in compatibility mode in W7). Its not one of the WDCWDCWDC etc master passwords.

The drive is a WD5000AVCS

Am I flogging a dead horse or can this drive be unlocked? I am not going to pay HDD Unlock wizzard as I can pick up a drive cheaper than that service

You say you don't care about the data. In this case try using HDDHackr on your drive. Make sure you save the resulting UNDO.BIN file. This file will be required to restore your drive, and it will contain your password.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Why would a PVR box put a password on a hard drive anyway. Or are they trying to stop people pulling the drive out and using it in a PC or something... Seems un-recyclable friendly!

Shane

Exactly ShaneWard, the drive says DOM March 2012 so its still a spring chicken! Seems wasteful to not be able to reuse the HDD, have sent an email to Western Digital to see if they would be kind enough to part with the unlock details.. fingers crossed

Thank you for your recommendation fzabkar I will look into HDDHackr now.

Spildit, thank you for the offer but I don't really want to spend out any money on this. Could probably purchase an equivalent HDD for not a lot of cash.

zu easily break WD20EDVS-63T3B0 = WD AV-GP is approximately the same as WD5000AVCS