Hi,

I have a Dell Inspiron 1545 with a Samsung HM320II removable hdd drive.
Two days ago the computer suddenly shutdown (I have Ubuntu 9.10 installed there), and when I turned it back on again the system won't boot. At first I thought the disk was damaged, but I checked the BIOS and it can detect the disk.
I saw on a few sites a recommendation to use Fdisk to check the partitions, which I did and it shows all partitions are still there (!!!) , and then it recommended to use a program called Hdparm which i ran, and it reported the drive is in "FROZEN" state.

I called Dell's support and they told me that I can only reinstall the OS on it, but I dont want to do it because I have important information on the HDD that I want to restore. I've tried following a few advices I saw in several places on the internet recommending to disconnect the HDD from the laptop and try to connect it to another computer that has no "FROZEN" bios feature, so I tried connecting it to my home PC (Old Pentium 4 machine) but still no good.

It seems as if all read/write operations are blocked to the HDD, appearing as if the drive is inaccessible.

Please, if anyone here knows a solution to this I will greately appreciate it, I'm trying everything I can to resolve this!

Thanks,
Miki

If it is REALLY in "SECURITY LOCK" only knowing the key used for locking is possible to revert the status, otherwise special tools / KH is necessary to unlock it directly. Sorry, but it is not possible to give you further details as specific legal issues are involved (at least for me).

Advice : search for a reputable pro in your area that can unlock the drive (you can be asked to sign something or give proof of ownership of the laptop) or if you don't mind sending the drive / crossing the borders there are a lot of DR services that can do the job for you.

Hi,

I would like to ask what is shown in the Dell bios setup as to the status of the hdd security. If the drive has been locked by (an hdd security password set by the Dell system bios) it would be easier to deal with. But if the hdd has been locked accidently/spuriously by some kind of unexpected event then your options are limited to what BlackST has previously advised.

Hi dick,

I just checked the Dell BIOS security menu, and it says there is no password set for either the HDD or the System.
The hdd has been set in "frozen" after the computer had shutdown unexpectedly (i think i wrote it).

What does that mean?

OK,

I checked the Dell BIOS setup and it says that no hdd password is set.
The HDD got into the "frozen" state after an unexpected computer shutdown.

What does it mean?

Thanks,
Miki

Hi, For you that would be bad news. It means if you want to see your data again you will have to look for professional assistance.

I do believe that's true.

Hey guys, thanks for your replies and help.

I'd like to update on the status of this issue as I managed to SOLVE THIS PROBLEM and I can now access all the information that is on the disk again and will proceed to back it up before I format it and re-install the OS again

So, what happend in a brief was: I had Ubuntu v9.10 installed that one day crashed unexpectedly, resulting with the hdd being set to "frozen" status and locked access. I posted this issue here and I was almost ready to give the disk to a restoration company or have it replaced.

The solution was very surprising - I downloaded Ubuntu v10.10 and burned its ISO image to a CD and i was running it from the CD just to check out how it looks, where SUDDENLY: IT RECOGNIZES MY HDD AND GIVES ME *FULL* ACCESS TO IT!

!!!!

So the solution was to run Ubuntu v10.10 and now I have access to the hdd again.
It's surprising, but I hope this solution will help other people who have/had the same problem.

How do you guys explain this?

Anyways, thanks for the help
Miki

It was not Ubuntu and it probably won't help nobody but you if it is the PC and not the OS to start the freeze.

Many PC support "freezing" hdds as a security measure during power save mode or hibernation. A PW is set to lock the HDD in order to prevent arbitrary access to data. Yet to determine if it was hibernation i.e. battery low or malfunction.

In my first answer I said :

"If it is REALLY in "SECURITY LOCK" only knowing the key used for locking is possible to revert the status"

...what the PC did. It is worth to know if the mechanism is always the same in the same environment , but for me is useless - I can unlock it in 20 seconds regardless of how it was frozen

P.S. I forgot : lock another HDD externally in set security = MAX , connect to PC and run Ubuntu, then see if it is magically unlocked

I have a low-level solution.
Try to read service area by VTool or WCube.
After word "SECURITY" you will find User and Master passwords.