I have an old IBM tower with a Maxtor N40P hdd. I decided to run SeaTools for DOS, which reported no problems. I was able to mount the drive under a live disk as well. I tried running Secure Erase, which was unable to override the bios lock, so I decided to run DBAN which reported verify errors. It said the wipe failed, and thats when the problems began. I tried installing XP onto the machine, but it reported that there was no drive. I looked up info that I should get a RAID driver for it, but that still doesn't explain why Linux is no longer able to access the drive either. It says 'bad superblock' several times. GParted is not able to see the drive either. The bios still sees the drive, and reports it as a Maxtor, w 40.x GB. SeaTools still shows the drive/model/serial, but it says SMART is off. When I try to run any of the diagnostics, it says I should use my warranty, which I don't have . I downloaded some kind of tool for recovery of Maxtor hdd's from salvationdata, and I am doing an Intellective Restoration, which is going to take a long time.
Do I need a firmware upgrade, bios flash, RAID?
Thank You for your help. I just need to be able to use the drive again.

As you stated that you wanted to wipe the drive, there is no data of value on it. The cost to even bother diagnosing the drive is greater than the value of the drive. So, just buy another drive.

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Luke
Recovery Force Data Recovery

i agree, just bin it and get a new drive, no reason to try and get that drive working again if it is failing.

Do you guys think the firmware somehow got wiped? I read that these HDD's have this problem a lot.
I removed the hdd, and looked at the label. It said ATA 133. Based on what I read it should be a SATA.

What kind of 'diagnosis' do you suggest? I don't plan on spending money on it, but curious about the repair options. Money spent will be on a new (larger) drive as suggested.

Thanks for your support
SovietRussia

NO, it is ATA/133 it means P(ATA) drive, 133 MB/s Parallel ATA, not Serial ATA.
At that time, SAta was not still invented.

positivebit, My drive was made in June 2003. (Same year as SATA was released) I guess its dying out because it's so old.
Anyways, I just read about Repair Station, which will repair the SystemArea of the HDD.... for $50 . Oh well

Spend the $50 on a new drive instead. The N40P is a terrible drive and will fail. BTW, it was released in SATA version also.

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Data Recovery Ireland

Anyway this speed label delete every possibility could be Sata.
I never see a Sata drive before 2004 in the market, if someone has got one would be nice to share this info.
Bye!