Trying to help out a friend that apparently tried to format them to 4kn when connected to his server using linux commands and after that drives are reporting locked. I thought it would be as easy as just putting them back in an easystore enclosure and using the wd tools to format them, but the format fails. I tried the WD erase and it fails too. I even tried the WD unlock tool and it fails.

I suspect that there is some corruption that has caused this, but can't figure out how to fix it. I even have some sata cloning docks and they can't do it (even though they have worked to revive dead ssds).

The drives pass the smart tests without errors (none in the logs either) and seem to be fine otherwise until you try to write to them.

Any assistance appreciated. I can get model numbers, etc--just too tired right now. Thank you again.

I realize I didn't explain how I used the cloning docks to attempt the drive restore.

I have done this in the past with an SSD that wasn't showing up at all--I cloned a known working 20GB drive to the SSD and the SSD was showing up and working again. It was obviously having issues as directory listings looked odd and it failed again after a few months, but this inspired me to try it on the hard drive. But in this case, the clone would not even start (in two different model docks) as the drive was recognized as not writable.

Additional information on the drive:
MdL: WD100EMAZ-00WJTA0
P/N: 2W10228
R/N: US7SAL100
WWN: 5000CCA267CAA0D5

I can send you the serial number via PM if you need it.

Thank you in advance!

No thoughts? If it's simple, please point me in the right direction, or if not, at least give me an idea why.

This is Helium filled HGST/WD CCB architecture hard drive.
You simply bricked SA when interrupted formatting with sector conversion. Probably drive was in poor condition before you attempted to format it. Anyway, procedure to resurrect it is quite complex and expensive and doesn't worth any efforts if data no need. Moreover, i suspect, you don't have expensive tools and knowlege to deal with hard drives FWs

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Angel Data Recovery

Thank you for the reply.

I never formatted it actually, and as far as I know, the format wasn't interrupted (but if it was, this makes sense). The drives were in excellent condition and still have <15000 poh on them. My friend was simply trying to use them as 4kn vs 512e.

There is no data on the drives--just trying to get the drives to work again as they are just acting like a locked drive that cannot be formatted or even secure erased by the ata command. Short and long smart test check out 100% so the drive is still physically good.

Nothing? It's this simple to render a drive permanently useless when it is otherwise in perfect physical working condition?

I don't think the SA is bricked (maybe corrupted) because it otherwise behaves normally and responds to all read requests and passes all smart tests.

Would something like WDMarvel be the tool to use for an 'unlock via ram' method? Or better yet, anyone in the US be able to provide an unlock as a service? My friend has something like a dozen of these drives since he was doing the operation to all of them at once.

Understand this is pretty straight forward for you but for those of us reading and trying to pick up knowledge and learn, would you be willing to outline what a professional data recovery process would look like? Thanks!