Help unlocking hard drive

On Jan 30, 4:55 am, Grinder <grin... RemoveThis @no.spam.maam.com> wrote:
> nmor... RemoveThis @googlemail.com wrote:
> > I have a Seagate ST3500630A hard drive (1/2Tb) purchased less than a
> > week ago on ebuyer. And the summary is I've managed to lock it whilst
> > building an Xbox Media Centre. And I can't unlock it. I have the
> > password from the Xbox's eeprom but that's not working - neither is
> > xboxscene, the master password set by the locking/unlocking utility
> > that I used.
>
> Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive.

I have an eeprom.bin file that was created when I first installed
EvoX. Using xboxhdm I copied a known good root drive from the existing
xbox to the new hard drive. Then I locked it using xboxhdm with the
command lockhd -a which automatically fetches the password from the
eeprom. Problem is, I think the software changed the master password
to xboxscene. I overlooked this when later rebuilding the drive again,
and tried to unlock it using the eeprom.bin file (with the old
password in it from the xbox). Even though I've now tried unlocking it
using the password xboxscene it's not interested. I'm assuming there
are a default number of attempts before the drive locks up for good,
requiring a firmware flash.

I've located firmware for older Seagate drives, and even fairly recent
ones but not a 1/2Tb model. As a last resort I will flash it with one
of these and see what happens, although I'm fairly certain it will
brick the drive for good.
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

nmorson DeleteThis @googlemail.com wrote:
> I have a Seagate ST3500630A hard drive (1/2Tb) purchased less than a
> week ago on ebuyer. And the summary is I've managed to lock it whilst
> building an Xbox Media Centre. And I can't unlock it. I have the
> password from the Xbox's eeprom but that's not working - neither is
> xboxscene, the master password set by the locking/unlocking utility
> that I used.

Do you have an eeprom.bin file, that would have been created by making a
backup in the EvoX dashboard?
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

nmorson DeleteThis @googlemail.com wrote:
> I have a Seagate ST3500630A hard drive (1/2Tb) purchased less than a
> week ago on ebuyer. And the summary is I've managed to lock it whilst
> building an Xbox Media Centre. And I can't unlock it. I have the
> password from the Xbox's eeprom but that's not working - neither is
> xboxscene, the master password set by the locking/unlocking utility
> that I used.

Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive.
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

On Jan 30, 9:51 am, Grinder <grin....RemoveThis@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:
> I still think that unlockhd from your xboxhdm disc can be used to unlock
> your drive, but I've found this site that might provide a plan B (or C):
>
> http://www.seagateunlock.com/
>
> I see now where updating the firmware, for some Seagate models, will
> unlock the drive.

Many thanks for all your help. I have tried:
xboxscene in lower/upper case - no joy with xboxhdm
atapwd in pure DOS mode - with xboxscene password (uppper/lower case)
and also by typing in key from eeprom.bin - no joy
writing zeros (using a program which I forget the name of) to the
drive - although this was in the Windows environment - I could try
this in DOS mode
Seatools - Seagates disc recovery/test program - no joy (will do basic
short/long tests but not advanced, reports error - that's all)

The message that atapwd is giving is 'Rejected' when I type in the
password. When using unlockhd through xboxhdm I am getting 'Device
ready' upon unlock but the drive remains locked. I've read on one or
two xbox forums that flashing the firmware is probably the only way
out, and since this is where I believe the key is stored, probably my
only chance of rescue.

Annoyingly I do have the original eeprom with the key - but nothing is
working. The drive is being recognised by the BIOS
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

nmorson.RemoveThis@googlemail.com wrote:
> On Jan 30, 4:55 am, Grinder <grin....RemoveThis@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:
>> nmor....RemoveThis@googlemail.com wrote:
>>> I have a Seagate ST3500630A hard drive (1/2Tb) purchased less than a
>>> week ago on ebuyer. And the summary is I've managed to lock it whilst
>>> building an Xbox Media Centre. And I can't unlock it. I have the
>>> password from the Xbox's eeprom but that's not working - neither is
>>> xboxscene, the master password set by the locking/unlocking utility
>>> that I used.
>> Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive.
>
> I have an eeprom.bin file that was created when I first installed
> EvoX. Using xboxhdm I copied a known good root drive from the existing
> xbox to the new hard drive. Then I locked it using xboxhdm with the
> command lockhd -a which automatically fetches the password from the
> eeprom. Problem is, I think the software changed the master password
> to xboxscene.

It will set a *master* password of xboxscene, but it should still lock
the drive with an xbox-friendly password generated from eeprom.bin.

> I overlooked this when later rebuilding the drive again,
> and tried to unlock it using the eeprom.bin file (with the old
> password in it from the xbox).

And that unlock failed? What's the exact message you get when you try
to unlock the drive?

> Even though I've now tried unlocking it
> using the password xboxscene it's not interested. I'm assuming there
> are a default number of attempts before the drive locks up for good,
> requiring a firmware flash.

That's not true as far as I know.

> I've located firmware for older Seagate drives, and even fairly recent
> ones but not a 1/2Tb model. As a last resort I will flash it with one
> of these and see what happens, although I'm fairly certain it will
> brick the drive for good.

I think you're being a bit rash. Do you have any reason to suspect
flashing the firmware will unlock the drive?
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

On Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:49:29 -0800 (PST), nmorson.TakeThisOut@googlemail.com
wrote:

>On Jan 30, 4:55 am, Grinder <grin....TakeThisOut@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:
>> nmor....TakeThisOut@googlemail.com wrote:
>> > I have a Seagate ST3500630A hard drive (1/2Tb) purchased less than a
>> > week ago on ebuyer. And the summary is I've managed to lock it whilst
>> > building an Xbox Media Centre. And I can't unlock it. I have the
>> > password from the Xbox's eeprom but that's not working - neither is
>> > xboxscene, the master password set by the locking/unlocking utility
>> > that I used.
>>
>> Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive.
>
>I have an eeprom.bin file that was created when I first installed
>EvoX. Using xboxhdm I copied a known good root drive from the existing
>xbox to the new hard drive. Then I locked it using xboxhdm with the
>command lockhd -a which automatically fetches the password from the
>eeprom. Problem is, I think the software changed the master password
>to xboxscene. I overlooked this when later rebuilding the drive again,
>and tried to unlock it using the eeprom.bin file (with the old
>password in it from the xbox). Even though I've now tried unlocking it
>using the password xboxscene it's not interested. I'm assuming there
>are a default number of attempts before the drive locks up for good,
>requiring a firmware flash.
>
>I've located firmware for older Seagate drives, and even fairly recent
>ones but not a 1/2Tb model. As a last resort I will flash it with one
>of these and see what happens, although I'm fairly certain it will
>brick the drive for good.

Whatever you do to it you should be able to get it back to a usable
state so long as there is no physical damage to the drive.

In my role as helper for a charity I have received many donated drives
which had a variety of operating Systems and partition arrangements.
Often it is easier to use a utility downloaded from the Hard Disk
Manufacturers site that enables you to low-level format (sometimes
referred to as "write to zeros") the disk and start all over again.
The utility is installed on a floppy disk and you make the floppy the
first bootable option - then follow the options. The latest utility
software will check the drive first to ensure it is a compatible disk
for the rewriting process.

I have no knowledge of xbox set-up, so the one proviso is that the
disk you have for the X-box set up will recognise an unformatted and
un-partitioned drive, and undertake that for you after carrying out
the low-level formatting.

km
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

Grinder wrote:
>> Also, describe the process by which you locked the hard drive.

nmorson.DeleteThis@googlemail.com wrote:
> I have an eeprom.bin file that was created when I first installed
> EvoX. Using xboxhdm I copied a known good root drive from the existing
> xbox to the new hard drive. Then I locked it using xboxhdm with the
> command lockhd -a which automatically fetches the password from the
> eeprom. Problem is, I think the software changed the master password
> to xboxscene. I overlooked this when later rebuilding the drive again,
> and tried to unlock it using the eeprom.bin file (with the old
> password in it from the xbox). Even though I've now tried unlocking it
> using the password xboxscene it's not interested. I'm assuming there
> are a default number of attempts before the drive locks up for good,
> requiring a firmware flash.

Just a bit more on this:

If you have indeed locked the hard drive using xboxhdm's lockhd and your
eeprom.bin file, then xboxhdm's unlockhd and that same eeprom.bin should
work to unlock it.

If for some reason, you have lost the eeprom.bin, you can use atapwd
(from the DOS boot portion of the xobxhdm boot disc) to unlock the drive
using the *master* password: XBOXSCENE (It's case sensitive if I
remember correctly.)
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

I still think that unlockhd from your xboxhdm disc can be used to unlock
your drive, but I've found this site that might provide a plan B (or C):

http://www.seagateunlock.com/

I see now where updating the firmware, for some Seagate models, will
unlock the drive.
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

nmorson.TakeThisOut@googlemail.com wrote:
> On Jan 30, 9:51 am, Grinder <grin....TakeThisOut@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:
>> I still think that unlockhd from your xboxhdm disc can be used to unlock
>> your drive, but I've found this site that might provide a plan B (or C):
>>
>> http://www.seagateunlock.com/
>>
>> I see now where updating the firmware, for some Seagate models, will
>> unlock the drive.
>
> Many thanks for all your help. I have tried:
> xboxscene in lower/upper case - no joy with xboxhdm
> atapwd in pure DOS mode - with xboxscene password (uppper/lower case)
> and also by typing in key from eeprom.bin - no joy
> writing zeros (using a program which I forget the name of) to the
> drive - although this was in the Windows environment - I could try
> this in DOS mode

The key in eeprom.bin is encrypted. I'm not sure how you extracted it,
but that would be something good to know. xboxhdm's unlockhd cannot
unlock the drive with the provided eeprom.bin, I would think that it's
not locked with that key, or that the hd might actually be failing.
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

> The key in eeprom.bin is encrypted.  I'm not sure how you extracted it,
> but that would be something good to know.  xboxhdm's unlockhd cannot
> unlock the drive with the provided eeprom.bin, I would think that it's
> not locked with that key, or that the hd might actually be failing.- Hide quoted text -

I didn't extract the key from the eeprom.bin - I guessed that xboxhdm
had reset the password to xboxscene. Upon first build it used the
eeprom.bin file to lock the drive and then set the master password to
xboxscene (I obviously missed this screen when setting it up). What
doesn't make sense is how the same eeprom.bin file managed to unlock
it later so that I could rebuild the drive when the master password
had been set to xboxscene. This would not have been stored in the
eeprom.bin as I was using the original file.

As for the drive failing, it's a one week old Seagate 1/2Tb model so
think it unlikely
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

nmorson RemoveThis @googlemail.com wrote:
>> The key in eeprom.bin is encrypted. I'm not sure how you extracted it,
>> but that would be something good to know. xboxhdm's unlockhd cannot
>> unlock the drive with the provided eeprom.bin, I would think that it's
>> not locked with that key, or that the hd might actually be failing.- Hide quoted text -
>
> I didn't extract the key from the eeprom.bin - I guessed that xboxhdm
> had reset the password to xboxscene. Upon first build it used the
> eeprom.bin file to lock the drive and then set the master password to
> xboxscene (I obviously missed this screen when setting it up). What
> doesn't make sense is how the same eeprom.bin file managed to unlock
> it later so that I could rebuild the drive when the master password
> had been set to xboxscene.

There is a hard drive key, derived from eeprom.bin *and* a master
password that gets set by xboxhdm. Knowing either one can unlock the
hard drive.

> This would not have been stored in the
> eeprom.bin as I was using the original file.

Ok, I don't understand that at all. Xboxhdm, nor lockhd/unlockhd make
any modifications to eeprom.bin. The reason eeprom.bin is used is so
that the drive can be locked with the same key that the xbox will
attempt to unlock it with. *In addition* to that, a master password is
set on the drive so that you can unlock the drive without having to know
the xbox-specific key.
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

On Jan 31, 8:53 am, Grinder <grin....DeleteThis@no.spam.maam.com> wrote:
> nmor....DeleteThis@googlemail.com wrote:
> >> The key in eeprom.bin is encrypted.  I'm not sure how you extracted it,
> >> but that would be something good to know.  xboxhdm's unlockhd cannot
> >> unlock the drive with the provided eeprom.bin, I would think that it's
> >> not locked with that key, or that the hd might actually be failing.- Hide quoted text -
>
> > I didn't extract the key from the eeprom.bin - I guessed that xboxhdm
> > had reset the password to xboxscene. Upon first build it used the
> > eeprom.bin file to lock the drive and then set the master password to
> > xboxscene (I obviously missed this screen when setting it up). What
> > doesn't make sense is how the same eeprom.bin file managed to unlock
> > it later so that I could rebuild the drive when the master password
> > had been set to xboxscene.
>
> There is a hard drive key, derived from eeprom.bin *and* a master
> password that gets set by xboxhdm.  Knowing either one can unlock the
> hard drive.
>
> > This would not have been stored in the
> > eeprom.bin as I was using the original file.
>
> Ok, I don't understand that at all. Xboxhdm, nor lockhd/unlockhd make
> any modifications to eeprom.bin.  The reason eeprom.bin is used is so
> that the drive can be locked with the same key that the xbox will
> attempt to unlock it with.  *In addition* to that, a master password is
> set on the drive so that you can unlock the drive without having to know
> the xbox-specific key.

That's useful to know and explains why I can lock the hard drive with
the eeprom.bin file (although once the master password is set to
XBOXSCENE this file will not unlock the drive).

Thanks again for all your help
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive 

> I've locatedfirmwarefor olderSeagatedrives, and even fairly recent
> ones but not a 1/2Tb model. As a last resort I willflashit with one
> of these and see what happens, although I'm fairly certain it will
> brick the drive for good.

I have seen your posts and sorry I can't help with your problem but I
have a problem of my own and wondered if you could point to where you
found software to flash Seagate drives and firmware as well? I have a
160gb Seagate (ST3160021A with 8.11 firmware). It is apparently
lockable but it doesn't conform to the ATA security spec, but its
widely known as lockable drive (but of the few that are documented as
locked show they are on firmware 8.01).

Cheers
 >> Stay informed about: Help unlocking hard drive