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Remove Password in Maxtor Drive

Part one: Error Symptom

 

Sometimes our drive may be protected by password. Look at the following picture; we can see the LBA number was replaced by a special character “drive is protected by password”:


In this condition, the drive could be detected in BIOS, but can’t access to the data area:


When we try to access to data area, shows all “6666″ and error status.

 

Part two: The Reason

 

This error condition usually happened on some suddenly interrupted, for example: in the process of drive format or data transmission, suddenly power off or disconnection, the drive may be protected by password.

 

Part three: Error Analysis

 

In modules list, we can see a Password module:


In fact, when the HDD power on, the main control chip will check this module, if it find the sign bit was changed, the drive would under protected status, as the following pictures.

Not be protected, #26 mod:


Be protected, #26 mod:


We can see the third and fourth bits were changed, for “0500 0000” to “050B 0001“.

Now we have found the reason of thse problem, so the solution is so easy, just need to modify the bit to original status.

 

Part four: The Solution

 

We could remove the password through HDD Doctor in a very simply way: go the “Other Operations”, click “Clean HDD Password” button:


Then power off and on, load from HDD again, we can see the password has been removed:


Now the LBA number returns to normal status and could access to data area already:

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By roy – September 29, 2009

A simple case study of Flash

Here is simple case study of Flash doctor, in this case, we could study how to judge the Mark structure setting is correct and it main function.

Look at the following picture; it’s a small Flash chip, only 128MB capacity:

After “Save Task”, we could read data:

Then we begin the structure analysis. First we must choose the right “Standard Page Structure”, we have set some command standard page structure as default, then we just need to choose them one by one and view data, if the service data are regularly, that means the page structure is correct. As the following picture:

The service data are disorder, not the right page structure:

The service data are regular, which represent correct page structure:

(The above pictures not come from this flash, just as an example)

Now we have confirmed the “Standard Page Structure”:

Then we focus on “Service Block Size”, at the beginning, we took a mistake at the Mark Structure, set a wrong Mark structure, and we will discuss this mistake later, to understand if we get the wrong mark, what’s the main represents.

About the ID structure, we can see the clear ID bits, which help us confirm the ID structure very soon:

Found the regular number first:

Then change some pages, look at the transformation of those bits:

Compared the two bits, “01″ at 06 position is still but “84″ at 07 is changed, so we know the Byte Order is “Big Endia”.

The first setting:

Then we try to combine data:

We were amazing to see that only collect 11 total nodes, and no valid nodes at all. There must some errors, then we changed the “Data Collection Method”:

But the result was the same. Only 11 total nodes and no valid nodes.

Analysis this problem, we know there are many pages in the Flash chip, and the main function of Mark structure is used to judge whether this page is a valid one (ID structure is relation with how many data we could collect, not relation with the node). So there must some problems in the Mark structure.

Check the Mark structure, we found the mistake soon:

We set a wrong Mark position. Actually, the correct setting is the at 00 position or the 24 position:

Then we modified the wrong setting and combine data again:

Now we can see the collection is success, 2800 total nodes and 577 valid nodes.

And the following data recovery work is success:

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By roy – September 24, 2009

Data recovery in silver I

A common problem in WD drive is couldn’t access the data area. Especially in some case which has changed the PCB, here is a case about this problem:

The customer said that the PCB of the drive was burn. So he changed the PCB, and now the drive could be detect (this is silver I series, need not match the ATA). But still couldn’t access the data area. As the following picture:

We can see all the HDD parameters could be detected well, but try to access the data are, all 6666 bits.

The possibility reasons:

  1. Translator modules problem
  2. Adapt modules problem
  3. Be locked

Apparently it is not locked, so we try to rebuild the translator modules first:

Then power off and on, try to access data area again:

Now the drive returns to normal working status, and we could get data back.

If it still now work, try to upload the adaptor parameter module, it would be ok.

Posted in Data Recovery Story, Western Digital Data Recovery.

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By roy – August 7, 2009

A case study for Data Compass

图片1

I made a remote assistance with my friend Bob yesterday.He said there are some bad sectors on the drive,but the drive can still be detected in BIOS and the folder can be viewed in Windows XP.but DC can’t access the data normally.

Then I loged into his computer by teamviewer,and try to view the data.But it only shows 5000.That means the data can’t be accessed properly.
Continued…

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By Justin – August 6, 2009

Why we couldn’t install the driver

Sometimes, after installed the program, the computer couldn’t recognize the doctor and we need to install the drive by manual. But in special conditions we found the drive install also be failed. There is a case about the install fail and why.

As the following picture, after the program installed, the doctor still be detect as an unknown device:

Then we try to install the drive by manual as usual:

But a moment later, we found that the driver install failed:

Then we go to the driver catalog, but the entire driver files are ok:

After communication with the customer, I found that he installed the program to a old notebook with only USB1.0 interface. But actually, our product just support USB2.0, couldn’t work with USB1.0, then I asked the customer change another computer, the program work well.

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By roy – August 6, 2009

Intensive read

Intensive read is a very useful function for head problem or bad sector condition. Here is a typical case about this function.

Yesterday we got a patient drive with strong bad sectors, and the customer need the database file, it’s very important for them.

We connected this drive to DC and with shadow disk, and could access to the file successfully:

Then try to recover those files:

A moment later, all those files retrieved success:

But when we open them with Winhex, we found one file is full of 4040 bits, what means the retrieved was failed:

Compared with other file:

The customer needs all the files….even one is broken, all those files are invalid (they are working together).

Then we open the intensive read function in shadow disk control page:

Then recover this file again:

Listen to the sound, it apparently different with former. After this file has been retrieved, open it with Winhex again:

Now we can see this broken file was retrieve success.

PS: Intensive Read function may have a bad effect to head. So we should recover all the data which we can recover without this function, then open it at last.

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By roy – August 5, 2009

Case study of NVRAM Repair

First, you need to find the corresponding donor drive.

The requirements of NVRAM compatibility is the following:

a. Same Model

b. Same first two strings of PCB label, like the following picture:

Continued…

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By Harvey – August 5, 2009

Hidden LBA function introduce

As we know, when we connected a drive to the computer, the computer will add its MBR first and then scan all HDD based on the MBR, but if the drive has many bad sectors, it may hang.

DC has a special function which called “Hidden LBA” could avoid this error condition, and the operation is very simple.

Before we hidden LBA, check the MBR:

And then the DBR:

Then we back to control page, try to hidden LBA and check what the difference ensued:

As the above picture, set the number from “0″ to “1″ (MBR is the first sector). Then “SAVE”. Now the hidden operation is finished.

Check original MBR and DBR sectors once more:

We can see both the original MBR and DBR were changed.

Because we hidden the 1 sector, so the DBR should be located to the former sector, the 62 sector:

After that, when we connect a new drive to DC, the computer never scan it any more.

But it would not affect DCEXP to detect the drive and partition:

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By roy – July 31, 2009

Introduce for SA-C in Hitachi drive

There is a special service area in Hitachi drive: SA-C. It’s a third firmware copy for the drive. The most firmware modules which stored on SA-C are same as SA-A/B. But different with SA-A and SA-B, this service area record the original firmware and never take part in the normally working for the drive, that means even SA-A and SA-B were broken, the firmware modules on SA-C are still in good status.

By switching to SA-C, we will be switching the working mode from normal to factory mode; we can only handle with the SA when we are in the factory mode, not the data area:

This is very useful for Hitachi drive repair; For example, the target hard drive is making a clicking sound. If you can be sure that the mechanism such as the HEAD stack has no problem, then it must be caused by firmware corruption. By switching to the factory mode, the clicking will be stopped, and you can update the firmware modules of SA-A and SA-B (the two SA for normal working mode) then get rid of the clicking.

Or you find the SA-A and SA-B becomes read-only (means that you can save modules from them but you cannot update any module successfully), we can have it fixed by switching to factory mode also:

And the most important function: remove Hitachi HDD password protection, you need to work under factory mode also.

There is another function which reference to SA: “Select the Working Mode”:

Different with SA-A/SA-C Switch, in this way, we will not change the working mode of the drive, but means we want to work on that SA only (the drive will still work on normal mode), such as read/write operations towards the defined SA. The numbers shown in the column are the starting positions of each SA (these starting positions are also unique information which stored in the NVRAM of the drive).

Modules in SA-A:

Modules in SA-C:

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By roy – July 31, 2009

A case about image in DC

This is a Seagate laptop drive from one of our clients..Many bad sectors are found in the rear of the drive during the scanning process. And the data located in the last partition are required by this customer. So imaging data area to the disk is taken into account.

1. Get the drive connected to Data Compass (shorter form DC). In the mean time, connect the target disk to the PC via IDE2USB adapter. Then launch Data Compass Panel and click Total LBA to get the LBA value of this drive when HDD Status gets ready. Turn to Sector View tab, the data can be access normally.

2. Then start up logical software DC Explorer and click open drive to mount the patient drive. The partition information can be checked by clicking the plus sign in front of DCHDD. According to the requirement by our customer, just right click on the fourth partition and select Image Partition.

Select Image Data Area Only and set the target to the external hard drive. Click Create Task when everything is done.

Attention: When Image Data Area Only is selected, the capacity of the target drive should not only larger than the capacity of the Data Area, but also larger than the capacity of this partition. Because when the Bitmap is created, the space will be allocated by the capacity of the partition where the data is located. After the Bitmap is created, just click Start to image this partition.(The details about all options on this panel are introduced in another article)

Generally speaking, there is no need to pay attention to the image procedure when it’s started. Based on this idea, we didn’t spend too much time on this drive. However, after a long time waiting, something unusual happened.

We can see from the picture that there are many regular orange blocks in the HDD map. According to the illustration it shows the response time for the blocks are longer than 500ms.This is the reason that the speed of the image is much slower than expected. But which factor cause this problem?

1st.We doubt if the cables are unstable. But it happened again after cables changes. This possibility can be ruled out.

2nd. Are there any regular bad sectors in the patient drive? If so, maybe there is a head malfunction?

With this question, we get back to the Data Compass Panel and turn to Sector Servo tab for a scanning. The scanning result is listed below.

Although bad sectors exist, but there is no regular ones. So this possibility can also be ruled out.

So the target drive automatically comes under suspicion. Connect it to DC and run Sector Servo again. As was expected, there are regular bad sectors in this drive.

So the problem is so clear in our mind. The selection of the target drive causes this problem. We write this article in order to remind our clients to choose a good drive as a target disk. It can save you much time and energy indeed.

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By roy – July 31, 2009