Toshiba/Apple iPod Protected Harddrives

Hi

I'm new to this site. I been refurbishing n repairing ipods for about a year now. And i always run a surface scan on the hdd before i put it back into the ipod. However the Toshiba MK8010GAH and new Toshiba MK8022GAA seen to have some sort of lock or password on it. It is detect by BIOS but does not display in windows and no DOS software can access the drive. I used load of software to try and remove the password and it does not work.

MHDD says broken drive
KillDisk just dont do anything
MHD3 comes with some error
Wipe Tool/ Low format Tool wipes/formats the drive completely but still cant be accessed

Tried a few other software ......... but still no luck

I have also tried my friends PC3K board and that does not unlock it. (old PC3K) I think its an apple mac password on it but not sure. Could be some sort of hardware lock on the drive so they can only be used in iPods or Zunes? They work in iPods and i can format them in windows via the iPod, but i want to zero fill the drive and do a surface scan.

Can anyone help me please??