Unlock seagate barracuda hard disk

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huss1438

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Hello, I have collected some seagate barracuda hard disks from our university lab. They are locked by some previous students. How can I unlock them. I have no way to identify the students who locked the disks.
 

jdamon113

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format will not work. This is most likley a done deal.
You could get the same board from the back off a exact drive, but it would need to be the exact same model.
Firm ware
date code
modle number and batch number.
less there is something you really need on the drive. Its problery a done deal.
 
If all that you need to do is to use the drives again, and permanent loss of all data that is on them is acceptable, you could do a Secure Erase wrapped in something like Parted Magic. If the drive has an SATA password set, Parted Magic will prompt you to do some hack like disconnecting the power cord for 30 seconds.

If you need the data on them, that is another barrel of fish.
 

huss1438

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I don't need the data. I just need to prepare the hd for the next class. I have tried secure Erase using Part Magic. I have erased the data but still it is locked.
 

fzabkar

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How does a utility such as HDAT2 or HDDScan report the security status of the drives? If it is reported as "locked", then the drives have an ATA password. I believe this is written to the Vendor Track in the hidden System Area on the platters.

In this case you could use a paid solution such as HDDUnlock:
http://www.hddunlock.com/

Otherwise you could use a free solution such as SeDiv, but you will need to connect to the drive via its serial terminal interface using a TTL RS232 circuit.

You could use a USB-serial dongle such as is discussed in this thread:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/ATA-and-Serial-ATA-drives/Updated-firmware-on-a-bricked-hard-disk-but-not-working/m-p/51036#M19464

SeDiv - HDD Seagate Terminal for Windows can be obtained here:
http://sediv2008.narod.ru/Easy1014.rar (software)
http://sediv2008.narod.ru/HelpEn.rar (documentation)

BTW, SeDiv is time limited. You will see a message which translates to "This version is outdated". Try setting your system date back to around April 28, 2009 (date stamp of SeDiv.exe).
 
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