Two of 3 hard drives, all sectors went back at same time???

[jbclem]

This is too bizarre to believe...I changed motherboards, and had DOS access to all 3 hard drives, all files and folders
were working/accessible. After installing Win2000 from the 4 setup floppies, I couldn't get the password I had set up
to work. So I tried the password programs on Hirens CD. I tried 3 of them with no luck, then after a reboot no longer
had access to two of the three hard drives. I've run a number of programs to check this with the following results:

HDD Regenerator: all sectors bad on the one hard drive I checked
Data Lifeguard diagnostics: Drive 0 is locked, error/status code: 0220
Drive 2: drive not supported, error/status code: 0202. Unable to process
drive selection
Spinrite 6: Drive 0; empty drive, unable to access region
Drive 2; empty drive, unable to access region
Win2000 Recovery console: can't access drive
Lost and Found 1.61: drive read error (1H) on drive C
Master partition sector invalid
Boot sector invalid

testing drive 2....gave wrong size
drive read error (1H) on drive E
Master partition sector invalid
Boot sectore invalid

Testdisk 6.7 for DOS: HDD 80h 16.8 GB (this is correct)
unallocated
Partition structure OK
can't write new MBR code to 1st sector
HDD 81h 4.01 GB (this is correct, and this drive is accessible in DOS)
HDD 82h 74.5 GB (this is correct)
unallocated
WInternals Disk Commander:
Drive 0 17202 MB MBR couldn't repair, partition table problem
sector 0 unreadable
sector 1 unreadable
sector 2 unreadable
etc....
===============================
It makes no sense that two different hard drives (diff. ages also, but not very old) would suffer mechanical anihilation
at the exact same time without some physical trama. I'm not ready to give up yet, too much unbacked up data on these
drives, so can anyone make sense of these test clues I've provided. If they are spotty it's because I've run so many
tests, many times, and didn't write everything down.

John

 

[jbclem]

Sorry, it's "all sectors went BAD at same time"

John

 

[Rod Speed]

This is too bizarre to believe...
Nope.

I changed motherboards, and had DOS access to all 3 hard drives, all
files and folders were working/accessible. After installing Win2000 from
the 4 setup floppies, I couldn't get the password I had set up to work.

Most likely because either something had died in the hard drive subsystem by
then, or you had killed something in the process of changing the motherboard.

So I tried the password programs on Hirens CD. I tried 3 of them with no luck,

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

then after a reboot no longer had access to two of the three hard drives.

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

I've run a number of programs to check this with the following results:

HDD Regenerator: all sectors bad on the one hard drive I checked

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

Data Lifeguard diagnostics: Drive 0 is locked, error/status code: 0220
Drive 2: drive not supported, error/status code: 0202. Unable to process
drive selection

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

Spinrite 6: Drive 0; empty drive, unable to access region
Drive 2; empty drive, unable to access region

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

Win2000 Recovery console: can't access drive

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

Lost and Found 1.61: drive read error (1H) on drive C
Master partition sector invalid
Boot sector invalid

testing drive 2....gave wrong size
drive read error (1H) on drive E
Master partition sector invalid
Boot sectore invalid

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

Testdisk 6.7 for DOS: HDD 80h 16.8 GB (this is correct)
unallocated
Partition structure OK
can't write new MBR code to 1st sector
HDD 81h 4.01 GB (this is correct, and this drive is accessible in DOS)
HDD 82h 74.5 GB (this is correct)
unallocated

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

WInternals Disk Commander:
Drive 0 17202 MB MBR couldn't repair, partition table problem
sector 0 unreadable
sector 1 unreadable
sector 2 unreadable
etc....

Because the hard drive subsystem wasnt working.

===============================

It makes no sense that two different hard drives (diff. ages also, but not very old)
would suffer mechanical anihilation at the exact same time without some physical trama.

But perfectly reasonable that something in the hard drive subsystem like
the controller stopped working or never did work on that motherboard.

I'm not ready to give up yet, too much unbacked up data on these
drives, so can anyone make sense of these test clues I've provided.

See above.

If they are spotty it's because I've run so many
tests, many times, and didn't write everything down.

See if you can see the drives on the original motherboard.

 

[Squeeze]

jbclem wrote in

This is too bizarre to believe...

True. Unfortunately that first clue will be totally lost on the babblebot.

 

[jbclem]

The answer is this: both hard drives are locked, and I don't know how that happened but have confirmed it with two
different programs. The hard part is going to be figuring out how to unlock them.

John

 

[Arno Wagner]

This is too bizarre to believe...I changed motherboards, and had DOS access to all 3 hard drives, all files and folders
were working/accessible. After installing Win2000 from the 4 setup floppies, I couldn't get the password I had set up
to work. So I tried the password programs on Hirens CD. I tried 3 of them with no luck, then after a reboot no longer
had access to two of the three hard drives. I've run a number of programs to check this with the following results:

HDD Regenerator: all sectors bad on the one hard drive I checked
Data Lifeguard diagnostics: Drive 0 is locked, error/status code: 0220
Drive 2: drive not supported, error/status code: 0202. Unable to process
drive selection
Spinrite 6: Drive 0; empty drive, unable to access region
Drive 2; empty drive, unable to access region
Win2000 Recovery console: can't access drive
Lost and Found 1.61: drive read error (1H) on drive C
Master partition sector invalid
Boot sector invalid

testing drive 2....gave wrong size
drive read error (1H) on drive E
Master partition sector invalid
Boot sectore invalid

Testdisk 6.7 for DOS: HDD 80h 16.8 GB (this is correct)
unallocated
Partition structure OK
can't write new MBR code to 1st sector
HDD 81h 4.01 GB (this is correct, and this drive is accessible in DOS)
HDD 82h 74.5 GB (this is correct)
unallocated
WInternals Disk Commander:
Drive 0 17202 MB MBR couldn't repair, partition table problem
sector 0 unreadable
sector 1 unreadable
sector 2 unreadable
etc....
===============================
It makes no sense that two different hard drives (diff. ages also, but not very old) would suffer mechanical anihilation
at the exact same time without some physical trama. I'm not ready to give up yet, too much unbacked up data on these
drives, so can anyone make sense of these test clues I've provided. If they are spotty it's because I've run so many
tests, many times, and didn't write everything down.

John

First, a little formatting would be nice. As to the problem.
if the disks work in DOS, the likely explanation is a
driver problem in w2k or incompatible hardware. Note
that DOS may use a different data transfer mode that w2k.

Additional tests: Try the disks in the old mainboard.
Restrict disk access mode to a low PIO mode in the BIOS.

Arno

 

[Squeeze]

jbclem wrote in news:%[email protected]

The answer is this: both hard drives are locked,

Ahh, you finally managed to read your own post.

and I don't know how that happened

I'll bet that the password programs on the Hirens CD have nothing got to do with it whatsoever.

but have confirmed it with two different programs.

Then it must be true, no?

The hard part is going to be figuring out how to unlock them.

Yeah. Good luck. You obviously need it.

 

[jbclem]

Hard drives that are locked...that means no access of any kind. As I said, in past tense, I "had" access in DOS, then
after installing Win2000 and trying some password programs, I lost all access. Either I figure out how to unlock them,
or find someone who can do it, or sayonara to my data.

Thanks for your suggestions, and I appreciate some of the help from this newsgroup...but it's too annoying to have to
listen to these high school kids who haven't learned how to speak to grownups. I'm looking for some intelligent help on
this matter, I didn't come here to play straight man to some teenage loser.

Later...

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hard drives that are locked...that means no access of any kind. As
I said, in past tense, I "had" access in DOS, then after installing
Win2000 and trying some password programs, I lost all access.
Either I figure out how to unlock them, or find someone who can do
it, or sayonara to my data.

I see. So the password you set up would be the ATA device
password feature? What software did you use? There is also the
possibility of a keymap mismatch, i.e. you are typing something
else than you believe you are typing. If there is some other
fields in the password software, use them to make sure you are
typing the correct password.

As to breaking in, it seems some data recovery companies can do that
for some drives. The manufacturers ogviously do not want that a)
because it makes the disk password look insecure b) it allows trading
with stolen and locked disks and c) it prevents the sale of a new
disk when somebody has lost their password.

However, if you actually have the password, there should be better
options than paying a lot of money. Maybe just trying to unlock with
the same software you used to lock on a different computer (locked
disk as second disk) will do the trick.

Thanks for your suggestions, and I appreciate some of the help from
this newsgroup...but it's too annoying to have to listen to these
high school kids who haven't learned how to speak to grownups. I'm
looking for some intelligent help on this matter, I didn't come here
to play straight man to some teenage loser.

Unfortunately these are not high school kids, they have been areound
far too long. I suggest you just killfile them, everybody else here
does.

Arno

 

[Squeeze]

Arno Wagner wrote in news:[email protected]

I see.

No, really.

So the password you set up would be the ATA device password feature?

Don't bother, babblebot, he doesn't want to hear it.

So Babblebot, what extra in this post made you think of passwords
all of a sudden that you didn't get in your other post, yesterday.
Obviously it can't have been my referral to the password programs on
the Hirens CD because you have me killfiled and don't read my messages.
So please tell us, Babblebot, what caused the remarkable change in your
way of thinking.

The problem with that is that you need to be intelligent to understand intelligent help. Something you show no signs of whatsoever.

You do of course know that todays teenagers are tomorrows wizzkids,
don't you, moron? But then wizzkid is probably your definition of looser.

Unfortunately these are not high school kids,

But you are, babblebot?

they have been areound far too long.

But you have not, babblebot?
Perhaps that would explain your pure genious, being a kid and all.

I suggest you just killfile them,

everybody else here does.

Ooh, Babblebot speaking for everyone now.
What makes you think it wasn't you that he referred to, Babblebot?
It was after all your post that he responded to.

Looks more like every expert has Babblebot killfiled though.
More likely they left the newsgroup entirely since no one else
bothers to correct his constant clueless blabbering.

 

[jbclem]

Arno...Unfortunately, I didn't set up a password on these hard drives. You can see in my original message what
happened, I lost access to two of my three hard drives and it took a week to confirm that the the hard drives were
locked. I've found various passwords to try (for locked Xbox hard drives, for Seagate hard drives, even a Western
Digital one for older models...didn't work on mine), and plenty of people asking the same question as I am. Very few
answers. I wouldn't complain if I had known when I bought the hard drives that this could happen , but it's not
something the manufacturers warn you about. There are a few data recovery companies that claim they can get in and save
the data, but no mention of what they charge and I can't afford much anyway. All of my .doc, .xls, htm, .pdf, etc...
files were backed up to the 3rd hard drive that's still working...but thousands of Firefox bookmarks/favorites and
emails are lost. Why would this third drive be spared this problem, it's older, smaller, and FAT16 vs FAT32, and for
some reason this locking didn't occur on it.

One of the password softwares on Hirens CD is ATAPWD, which I'm using to try different passwords. I'm pretty sure I
didn't invoke a password with it to lock the drives because I was trying to figure out a Win2000 password after mine
stopped working. But I'll try my Win2000 password just in case.

I hadn't thought about blocking these "adult" losers until you mentioned it. I think I was hoping they might say
something of value but this must be their only social contact with people and it seems to be driven by a pathological
immaturity. That combined with a limited vocabulary is a hard combination to take for very long. If only they were
witty! Course, they would have friends to talk to if that were true. There should be regular reminders on this
newsgroup about blocking them out, after a while they'd just be shouting into an empty room, only the psychos would
continue once they realized no one could hear them.

When you say killfile, is that something other than the blocking available in IE6?

John

 

[Arno Wagner]

Arno...Unfortunately, I didn't set up a password on these hard
drives. You can see in my original message what happened, I lost
access to two of my three hard drives and it took a week to confirm
that the the hard drives were locked. I've found various passwords
to try (for locked Xbox hard drives, for Seagate hard drives, even a
Western Digital one for older models...didn't work on mine), and
plenty of people asking the same question as I am. Very few
answers. I wouldn't complain if I had known when I bought the hard
drives that this could happen , but it's not something the
manufacturers warn you about.

So you are entirely unclear what software did lock the drives
and when it happened? Is there any striking difference between
the drive that did not get locked and the other ones?

There are a few data recovery
companies that claim they can get in and save the data, but no
mention of what they charge and I can't afford much anyway. All of
my .doc, .xls, htm, .pdf, etc... files were backed up to the 3rd
hard drive that's still working...but thousands of Firefox
bookmarks/favorites and emails are lost. Why would this third drive
be spared this problem, it's older, smaller, and FAT16 vs FAT32, and
for some reason this locking didn't occur on it.

Hmm. Maybe the third drive does not support the ATA security
extensions needed for locking? If it is old enough, that
might be a possibility.

One of the password softwares on Hirens CD is ATAPWD, which I'm
using to try different passwords. I'm pretty sure I didn't invoke a
password with it to lock the drives because I was trying to figure
out a Win2000 password after mine stopped working. But I'll try my
Win2000 password just in case.

I think the best bet (besides exoensive professional recovery)
is finding out what locked the drive, since that particular
pice of software will have the password.

I hadn't thought about blocking these "adult" losers until you
mentioned it. I think I was hoping they might say something of
value but this must be their only social contact with people and it
seems to be driven by a pathological immaturity.

On the spot.

That combined with
a limited vocabulary is a hard combination to take for very long. If
only they were witty! Course, they would have friends to talk to if
that were true. There should be regular reminders on this newsgroup
about blocking them out, after a while they'd just be shouting into
an empty room, only the psychos would continue once they realized no
one could hear them.

There are even some psychos here that occasionally fake posting
as somebody else in order to be heard. Truely pathetic. I can only
conclude that some insane asylums allow their inmates usenet access.

When you say killfile, is that something other than the blocking
available in IE6?

A killfile is a traditional newsreader concept that blocks postings
based on author name or subject. I have no idea what IE6 offers,
but my experience with MS is general incompetence when the
Internet is concerned.

Arno

 

[Squeeze]

Franc Zabkar wrote in news:[email protected]

I, Franc Zabkar, would issue an ATA Identify Drive command

Yes, but then YOU are an idjut.

Anyone else runs a Password utility that simply shows you everything you need to know.

to each of your drives, capture their 512 byte responses, and analyse
words 92 and 128.

If the value of word 92 is FFFE,

then the original manufacturer's Master Password has not been changed.

Nope, all it means it that that value (Master Password Identifier) wasn't
changed from the manufacturers default.
The value can also be 0000 or FFFF in which case the Master Password
Identifier feature is not supported.

The Master Password Identifier does not indicate whether a Master
Password exists or is valid.
Also, the value doesn't need to be changed when the Master Password
is changed. It's optional.

If bit 1 of word 128 is set, then security is enabled. If bit 8 is reset,
then the security level is high as opposed to maximum, which means it will
still be possible to recover your data, provided you can remember the
user password, or uncover the master password.

I still use the following old Seagate DOS utility to capture the above
data:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/IDE-identify/FIND-ATA.EXE
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/IDE-identify/FIND-ATA.DOC

The following command retrieves the Identify Drive data from the
(p)rimary (s)lave and (d)umps it to a binary file.

find-ata p s d

See pages 34, 93, and 94 of this document:
http://www.t13.org/Documents/UploadedDocuments/project/d1321r3-ATA-ATAPI-5.pdf

Perhaps you should read it yourself.

 

[Squeeze]

Arno Wagner wrote in news:[email protected]
Of course you didn't, it was the fairies.

So you are entirely unclear what software did lock the drives
and when it happened? Is there any striking difference between
the drive that did not get locked and the other ones?


Hmm. Maybe the third drive does not support the ATA security
extensions needed for locking? If it is old enough, that
might be a possibility.

stopped working.

For which one obviously uses IDE drive password utilities for tools.

I think the best bet (besides exoensive professional recovery)
is finding out what locked the drive,

Yes, Babblebot, that was his question. So nice of you to repeat if for him.

since that particular pice of software will have the password.

Not that you will. You're having way too much fun playing the troll.

I think I was hoping they might say something of value

Pearls before swine, huh. No such luck.

On the spot.

Yeah, Babblebot, that describes you to a tee, doesn't it ...
Perhaps that's why the two of you bond so well.

Like the Babblebot? He has lots of friends here, that's why he spends 24
hours per day here, 7 days of the week, all year round. Lots of friends.
Of course they need to be clueless, more clueless than himself, such as
yourself, otherwise they go into his killfile. Fortunately for him there
is plenty of clueless and utterly lazies to go around.

Sounds very much like the Babblebot, with it's huge killfile.
Of course it provides him with the confidence that he so badly needs:
The silence of approval. So he can say the most stupid things over and
over and not notice any corrections, so he can say the same bullshit the
next time with total confidence all over again.

There are even some psychos here that occasionally fake posting
as somebody else in order to be heard. Truely pathetic.

I can only
conclude that some insane asylums allow their inmates usenet access.

Yeah, one of them crazies even fakes he is a lecturer on a Swiss university.
For some odd reason he thinks this newsgroup is his classroom.
Truely pathetic indeed.

A killfile is a traditional newsreader concept that blocks postings
based on author name or subject.

I have no idea what IE6 offers, but my experience with MS is general
incompetence when the Internet is concerned.

Nice one, Babblebot, step on your new found friend's soul.
Put your boot in it.