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05-17-2015, 08:41 PM
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#16
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Slackware Contributor
Registered: May 2015
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 1,942
Original Poster
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EDDY1
What OS are you using does it have "Disk Utility" or "Disks" is gnome your DE?
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I am running Slackware now, but I when I originally looked at it, I looked at it while running Debian Jessie. I have looked at the partition in Gparted, fdisk, cfdisk and I have also tried to reformat/unlock/reset password with the hdparm program. To no avail.
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05-17-2015, 10:45 PM
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#17
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LQ Addict
Registered: Mar 2010
Location: Oakland,Ca
Distribution: wins7, Debian wheezy
Posts: 6,841
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mralk3
I am running Slackware now, but I when I originally looked at it, I looked at it while running Debian Jessie. I have looked at the partition in Gparted, fdisk, cfdisk and I have also tried to reformat/unlock/reset password with the hdparm program. To no avail.
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Have you tried hiren's bootcd?
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05-19-2015, 01:52 AM
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#18
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Senior Member
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,640
Rep: 
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If you use "dd" write at least 20 MBs of zeroes. I repeatedly found that bootloaders use the free space between MBR and the first partition (cylinder?), which produced unwanted effects later or even prevented a re-formatting.
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05-19-2015, 03:15 AM
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#19
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Slackware Contributor
Registered: May 2015
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 1,942
Original Poster
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JZL240I-U
If you use "dd" write at least 20 MBs of zeroes. I repeatedly found that bootloaders use the free space between MBR and the first partition (cylinder?), which produced unwanted effects later or even prevented a re-formatting.
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Just to clarify for you, I know how to boot Windows. The drive I am talking about is an encrypted NTFS formatted backup drive with a hardware chip built into it that freezes the drive until it is unlocked from Windows using the device driver software in Windows.
There is NO master boot record or failing boot of any operating systems.
Please see the OP for further details. I also mentioned previously this drive has been put to the side to gather dust since I don't know the decryption password. The drive has firmware encryption. It's difficult to circumvent this encryption to wipe the partition table.
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05-19-2015, 03:38 AM
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#20
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Senior Member
Registered: Apr 2003
Location: Germany
Distribution: openSuSE Tumbleweed-KDE, Mint 21, MX-21, Manjaro
Posts: 4,640
Rep: 
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I understand. I just wanted to point out one possible source of errors if you use "dd" as suggested by some other posters.
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05-19-2015, 03:09 PM
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#21
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Moderator
Registered: Mar 2008
Posts: 22,361
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Wonder what would happen if you took the drive out and then partitioned it? Would it simply begin to work as expected once returned?
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05-19-2015, 06:24 PM
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#22
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Slackware Contributor
Registered: May 2015
Distribution: Slackware
Posts: 1,942
Original Poster
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jefro
Wonder what would happen if you took the drive out and then partitioned it? Would it simply begin to work as expected once returned?
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It is likely I would probably need device drivers to read it but I could definitely wipe the drive and put it into a new external enclosure case.
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05-19-2015, 11:51 PM
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#23
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LQ Addict
Registered: Mar 2010
Location: Oakland,Ca
Distribution: wins7, Debian wheezy
Posts: 6,841
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Every enclosure has it's own software, so maybe it would be possible to delete partition outside of enclosure.
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