SSD Locked During Secure Erase

[hennessy1]

I was doing a secure erase on an intel 320 ssd. The system I had it connected to had a newer intel rst driver on it. Which I found out to be the cause afterwords. But during the secure erase the system reset the data connection to the drive causing it to be locked. The system can still see the drive just can't do anything with it. Is there anything I can do myself or pretty much SOL?

I tried doing a secure erase with HDDerase but it asks for a password which I do not know.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I believe you can still do a manual secure-erase, although I don't know if it requires the password to do so.

 

[hennessy1]

What would I need to do for a manual secure erase?

Is there a default password that intel would use for their toolbox application to lock a drive?

 

[tweakboy]

So you see the drive in winblows but you cant access it ?

I would think you can get it going again in Windows Disk Management. gl

 

[hennessy1]

The drive is not available to windows only to the rst program it will list the drive but intel ssd toolbox can't see it either to do anything.

 

[Emulex]

read only mode?

 

[corkyg]

Try the same password set for the system.

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/unlock-ssd-without-paying-much-money-t4048468.html

 

[Elixer]

If everything else has failed, I would use a linux boot CD/flash drive.
Kinda like what this shows: http://www.unixmen.com/secure-erase-your-ssd/

 

[Auric]

RTFM. Does the Toolbox not warn about such occurance and state something about power cycling (it's been awhile since I've looked at it)?

 

[hennessy1]

I will try those suggestions thank you.

@Auric-Yes I does but I did not power cycle the drive. Like I mention it was the driver for intel rst that caused it. I know this because I tried another ssd and it dropped it too luckily not during a secure erase. I rolled back the driver to an older one and then everything worked ok.

 

[Auric]

Is this a known problem with RST and which version(s)? Currently using 11.6.0.1030 and no issues noticed but have not had reason to run secure erase.

 

[hennessy1]

I don't know if it is a known issue but I can tell you that it happend to me on an asus p9x79 ws board with this driver version for the c600 3.5.0.1101.

I also had this happen on a different system with the non enterprise version of the rst this version to be precis 11.6.0.1030.

 

[hennessy1]

Tried the system passwords for the system the ssd was originally part of and for the system it was connected to when I tried to secure erase it from hdderase v3.3 neither worked.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Load Parted Magic with the SSD not connected to the SSD connector and no power connected to it. Then, connect the drive and see if the erase tool in Parted Magic will secure erase it and let you recover the drive.

 

[hennessy1]

@Yellowbeard- I tried parted magic with default settings and not connecting the ssd until it booted. It saw the ssd but neither the enhanced secure erase or the non enhanced secure erase changed anything they both reported as completed but the drive is still locked.

 

[pm]

I'm aware that I'm resurrecting a post from last year, but I would just like to thank Yellowbeard for his advice.

I have a friend (no, really, it's not me) who borked his Intel 300GB SSD doing a secure erase and Intel support wasn't much help getting it working again (he also forgot the password), so I offered to give it a try and I followed Yellowbeard's advice above and I was able to get the drive unlocked and working again.... after trying about a dozen passwords until I got the right one. I'm not sure if Intel support wouldn't have worked if my friend had remembered his password for the drvie correctly, but either way, he's very happy that it's alive and I'm happy I saved him a bunch of money.

I love this place.