View the data sent back to MHDD 4.6 0xEC (Identify Dev) cmd

[rcooke]

I have a locked Hitachi drive. I want to know if this is a dying drive or if the password was set by the user.

Well, I don't know if I will get that much info. I'll settle for knowing if Toshiba obeyed the Hitachi Tech. manual and set a master password.

To do this, I need to display words 92 and 128 of the response to the "Identify Device" 0xEC command.

How the heck to I get that data displayed? I'm poking around the online help and man commands. The online docs and FAQ. Not seeing it.

Help for a blind man?

Thanks in advance!

[BlackST]

MHDD displays security status by itself , otherwise you need to write a script to get exactly the data you need from id device command. Unlock is another thing.

[Vulcan]

Or perhaps consider a different tool?

Under Linux (several bootable "Live" CD/DVDs available) you could use something like sg_sat_identify if your HBA has the SATL functionality, and appears to the OS as a SCSI HBA (e.g. LSI SAS/SATA HBAs, which is what I'm familiar with). It is easy to display the whole Identify Device response in hex using that utility.

[rcooke]

Thanks for the speedy replies!

BlackST, I just went through the MHDD manual again, and I must be missing something. As far as I can see, it only has a few flow-control and status commands, and the existing commands. So to be useful, there would have to be a way for the EID command to return the entire message it got back, instead of parsing it into the stuff it does now. Is there some way to do that you know about? Or are there more commands?

Vulcan, live long and prosper! I just happen to have an Ubuntu live CD...

I was going to write my own software for this in Python, but getting at the ATA interface under Windows is a real b*tch!

Of course, it will be much easier to write Python under Un*x. But as Vulcan points out, chances are there is a pre-existing utility....

Its just rather inconvenient because my only computer that has an easily accessible SATA port is also my FAX machine and book keeping software running WIN XP.

I'll keep watching for any other tidbits, or more info from BlackST.

And Happy New Year to those of you on the Gregorian Calendar.

[rcooke]

Hey, nobody said anything about HDDscan!

HDDScan for Windows:
hddscan.com

How come we don't have the latest version on our site?

I'm reading the manual know, but if anybody wants to contribute tips on how I can use this to get all of the drive info bytes.

[fzabkar]

Here is a script for retrieving the Identify Device info block:
http://ftp.slavka.kiev.ua/pub/programs/ ... RIPTS/TEST