"Locked" Western Digital IDE Hard Drive...

Alarik Zekaiden · Post by **Alarik Zekaiden** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 3:39 pm

Howdy folks. Just wondering if anyone had any advice on how to fix this issue I'm in. It's not a huge issue, but it is somewhat bugging the hell out of me.

I found a Western Digital Caviar 40 gig IDE hard drive (Can't remember the specific model number, I'll have to check it when I get home) in a box of my old stuff from the Corps, and I threw it in my "soon-to-be" Kubuntu Linux box.

I decided to run a low-level format off of the Data Lifeguard tools, but it always comes up as "Hard Drive Locked, Error Code - 0220". I tried to format it in Windows and Linux, with no success. I've also tried Spinrite 6.0 (which says the hard drive is locked by either BIOS or firmware) and running a DOS bootdisk, which won't let me access it either. The drive shows up in the BIOS correctly, and I can't find any setting which seems like it would specifically "lock" the drive.

I've researched the code on the internet and found that some drive arrays can tell a drive to "lock" itself, but I can't remember this drive ever being in any sort of RAID array. I've contacted Western Digital about it, but they told me "That specific model of hard drive is out of support" or something along those lines.

Anyhow, any advice would be appreciated. Otherwise, I'll just go buy a new one and use this one as a less than nifty paperweight.

Bahd Zoolander · Post by **Bahd Zoolander** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:37 pm

You don't need to low level format IDE drives unless there's something wrong with it. I'd just delete any old partitions on it and then partition it for the new OS.

There's a program called DLGCHK.EXE on your data lifeguard tools disc. If not, you can download it here: http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/files.html and use a DOS boot floppy to run it. Of course, booting off the DLT floppy may just lock it again.

Alarik Zekaiden · Post by **Alarik Zekaiden** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 5:57 pm

I haven't been able to access it to delete the partitions, but I'll try the DLGCHK.EXE as soon as I get home.

Thank you.

Soulwalker · Post by **Soulwalker** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 10:33 pm

That is a firmware security password set on the drive. Unless you can rewrite the firmware on the drive through a JTAG programmer most likely or have the application to unlock the drive with the correct password the drive is useless.. Trash it.

Post by **Ddrak** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:52 am

Soulwalker wrote:That is a firmware security password set on the drive. Unless you can rewrite the firmware on the drive through a JTAG programmer most likely or have the application to unlock the drive with the correct password the drive is useless.. Trash it.

For real? I didn't know you could do that to a HDD. Gonna have to do me some research now to figure out how to screw with all of my drives!

Dd

Alarik Zekaiden · Post by **Alarik Zekaiden** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 10:42 pm

Nothing I tried works, so I just put it up on the shelf for the time being. DLGCHK.EXE looked like it was trying to work, but it would error out at about 25%.

Oh well, thank you for the help though.