Inaccessible Hard Drive

[pc123andre]

Yesterday a friend gave me two hard drives (2x OEM Seagate 250Gb 7200rpm) taken from 2 cable TV recording boxes.

When i connected them to my pc (one in SATA, other in a external USB case) they appear in BIOS but not in windows. In Disk Management they are shown has unknown, not initialized (i'll try to translate the names since my windows isn't in english), the partitions not attributed and without free space!

When i click in initialize a error appears:
"Is not possible to complete the request due to an e/s* error"
*maybe in english that word is different...

After appears this error:
"Data error (error cyclic redundancy)"

I already tried to format them in Ubuntu and failed.

Are the disks locked to the boxes board? Or is there a way to recover the disks to be used normally?

 

[Mark Phelps]

They are most likely fully encrypted -- cable TV outfits do that to external drives so you can't copy off the media files stored on them.

I have had some luck running Seagate Low Level formatting against drives. You'll need to go to the Seagate site, download and install their hard drive management app (I think it's called SeaTools) -- and see if it finds the drives. You then should be able to do a low level format with that app. After that, you'll be able to format the drives.

 

[DocBrown]

I just told another member something similar a couple of days ago. Yes, they make these DVR HD's with their special format.

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...rmat-hdd-w7-doesnt-recognize.html#post2523958

 

[pc123andre]

I used seatools and when i tried to format it gave me an error.
Next i tried to make a bootable usb of partition wizard, also unsuccessful..

I really need those discs, is there other alternative?

 

[DocBrown]

Here is another I just remembered

Darik's Nuke & Boot

:ar: Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing

 

[jumanji]

Hi pc123andre,

In the Screenshot in your first post Partition Wizard shows both the disks as Bad Disk. Then it is what it is a bad disk.

Now connect both disks as Secondary drives on the PC and check them with SeaTools for Windows.

If the Short DST fails on those, download Seatools for DOS ISO SeaTools for DOS | Seagate ( You can burn the ISO to a CD or prepare a bootable pen drive with Rufus. http://rufus.akeo.ie/) Only Seatools for DOS can do Full Erase.

Also read the tutorial SeaTools for DOS tutorial

Boot from the CD or pendrive using the one-time boot menu.

Run "Full Erase" on the two disks

If the HDDs cannot be restored to the factory condition by that, those are indeed bad and dead and nothing can be done.

As I already told, if Partition Wizard shows them as "Bad Disk", the prognosis is bad.

Note: Be careful to choose the correct disks for Full Erase. Don't erase your system drive.

 

[ascomputers]

bad disks would suggest full format needed.

 

[pc123andre]

I sorted out the problem: the disks are blocked and need the Master Password.
I tried a million different tools to format/wipe/discover the password and with no success.

Any suggestion?

 

[ascomputers]

errrr... in a polite word...

No. if you don't have the master passwords I would suggest that you are going to struggle.

 

[jumanji]

....I tried a million different tools to format/wipe/discover the password and with no success......

Can you name a few atleast ten or twenty out of that million?

Did you run Seatools for DOS and try a Full Erase? When a suggestion is given to help you, it would be basic courtesy to give a feedback whether you tried it and what result.

Otherwise get going on your own.

 

[pc123andre]

Sorry, i did what you told me and many other things:
SeaTools (full erase), Partition Magic, atapwd, Hiren's Boot Cd, Hdd Unlock, Darik's Boot And Nuke and format with Ubuntu

 

[jumanji]

Have you checked this article?

Seagate HDD Unlocking Instructions

 

[pc123andre]

yes, i did.
I tried the method 1 and 3 (since 2 is not available to my drive). In method 3 the program detects the drive and gives the choice of buying a key to unlock the drive but i'm not willing to use that method if i can unlock it for free. Otherwise i may have to pay for the key :|

 

[jumanji]

OK, Good. You seem to have exhausted all the possibilities.