Topic: Unlocking A Hdd Without A Password Or Eeprom, Or Motherboard (Read 98 times)

killalltheyuppies · « **on:** March 12, 2007, 02:35:00 PM »

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Sticky this

so many people are trying to unlock an ATA Locked (HDD password locked) HDD, I keep seeing a way you can read an eeprom off the dead motherboard, but my motherboard died so I threw it away ( OOOPS ).

There is still hope though, after thinking that my 120GB drive was dead, I found a way to unlock it for only $25 (More for bigger, less for smaller).

A company at http://www.hddunlock.com/ can do this for you in about an hour (for 120GB).

I just finished doing this the other day to a drive that I considered dead untill I tried this last ditch effort (GLAD I DID)

I am a rather technical person, but I don't understand how this works. ATA-3 only lets you put in five (5) passwords per boot so it can't be brute forced. I think that only some drives have the password stored with the HDD firmware, so a firmware update would only work with SOME drive not ALL. So how the hell does this work? Has this company come up with a way to read the ATA-3 password off of the physical pallets without opening the drive? I don't know, but it works.

If anybody would be interested in starting a project to make our own (XBOX-SCENE) program/algorithums to unlock peoples dead drives, that would be something that would really help people. I would love to see a couple of us get together and make a FREE program to accomplish this same task (That way all the kiddies that messed up their HDD, get it back good as new)

After I ran HDDUNLOCK windows did not recognize the drive still. I rebooted into atapwd (assuming it was still locked and all hope was now OFFICIALY lost) but it was not locked at all !!!! SUCCESS !!!! I just ran the seagate diagnostics to reformat the whole drive and all was well. My drive is now as good as new.

Hope this helps all of you,

If you are interested in the 'X-S HDD UNLOCK/FORMAT' project contact me at [email protected]
please contact if you have something to contribute ONLY, not if you have modded an XBOX or two and think you know it all.

-Gadget- · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2007, 03:52:00 PM »

a while back there lots of talk of this (when this program first came out, and they were offering any HDD under 20GB for free !!
also at the same ime a prigrame and tutorial to unlock some of the seagate drives with
ST310014ACE unlocking tutorial english.pdf
being just one of the things released
put in ST310014ACE into the search and read up on that, and i expect that will also lead to other apps and stuffs ..

also just to note while people are browsing this, if you have unlocked and then relocked ya drive the master password can be used, which im sure was default to TEAMASSEMBLE (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

hope this helps/sheds some light on this subject ... Mick ...

Guitarzan01 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 12, 2007, 04:00:00 PM »

The master password is actually TEAMASSEMBLY

0794 · « **Reply #3 on:** March 12, 2007, 08:12:00 PM »

there are even more free ways located here:

http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Unlocking%20Sea...ard%20Drive.htm

killalltheyuppies · « **Reply #4 on:** March 12, 2007, 10:01:00 PM »

The ST310014ACE is a stock xbox drive, I am looking for a way to unlock ANY HDD.

The few drives that can accomplish this with a simple FW update doesn't count either

Also llama only has methods to unlock the drives that come stock in the xbox. There are not many options for folks who have a locked hard drive laying around, no eeprom, no motherboard, no password, and it wasn't locked by XBHDM (which is where the TEAMASSEMBLY password comes from). Best bet is HDDUNLOCK (cheapest solution)

I have seen other passwords floating around the web but in my case it did me no good.
Others are
TEAMASSEMBLY
XBOXSCENE
XBOX-SCENE
WDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWDCWD
Seagate(followed by 25 spaces)
(32 spaces)
(1 space)

etc.

If none of the passwords around have helped and you have no way to unlock it for free, HDDUNLOCK is the cheapest option I have found. If somebody else can tell me how to unlock almost any drive (all major brands+) for cheaper I would be thrilled to start doing that (you would be surprised how cheap you can buy 300GB HDD's for when somebody cant unlock it)

This post has been edited by killalltheyuppies: Mar 13 2007, 05:08 AM

-Gadget- · « **Reply #5 on:** March 13, 2007, 12:01:00 PM »

when using HDDUNLOCK, does it have to query their servers each time u unlock a HDD?
as in does it need to be connected to the net.. ?
or is it a stand alone program ??

Mick ...

killalltheyuppies · « **Reply #6 on:** March 13, 2007, 10:03:00 PM »

connects to their servers (needs the net), algorithms or just some bullshit? don't know, but the program wont unlock your drive without an internet connection.

Tsanford_01 · « **Reply #7 on:** March 14, 2007, 04:56:00 PM »

Do not pay to have a hard drive unlocked what a rip off...If you have the motherboard and the balls to solder 3 wires onto the board go here:
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/357863

I have unlocked at least 6 with this super tool, Unicorn is the man.

killalltheyuppies · « **Reply #8 on:** March 14, 2007, 08:37:00 PM »

Tsanford_01, you should really read everything before you reply in the forum. The point was to unlock ANY drive WITHOUT an EEPROM, WITHOUT a MOTHERBOARD, NO PASSWORD, and it wasn't locked by XBHDM, NO idea of USER or MASTER passwords.

Please people, if you are going to reply in the forum, READ it first.

Sorry if this is offensive, but we don't need any miscommunication.

This post has been edited by killalltheyuppies: Mar 15 2007, 03:38 AM

Alex548 · « **Reply #9 on:** March 15, 2007, 01:22:00 AM »

QUOTE

Please people, if you are going to reply in the forum, READ it first.

If you would have read this forum last year, you'd know about hddunlock already.

Not only was this covered on the front page several times, it was also in the ad banners.
The beta testing period allowed free unlimited unlock codes.
Now they charge, but it's still a good deal.

You'd think this website would be common knowledge by now considering it was HUGE news on llamma, team-xecuter, and here last year.

Here's a link to one of MANY announcements and threads on these forums regarding hddunlock.
Click Me

This post has been edited by Alex548: Mar 15 2007, 08:51 AM

killalltheyuppies · « **Reply #10 on:** March 15, 2007, 06:39:00 PM »

My bad X-S Messiah, what I am trying to say here is that I would like to know more techinical details about how HDDUNLOCKER works, not that it just exists.
I work for Symantec technical support (IMS), which deals mainly with ghost. I would just like to know more about how this unlocking is accomplished.
Any info would be awesome.
I would either like to build my own tool, or at least have a greater understanding of what is happening.
Thanks, and sorry for being so unclear.

The primary goal is to make an open source project dedicated to a "free hddunlock".
If this is an impossibility, just tell me why.

Sincerely,
One Confused Dude

stfukthx · « **Reply #11 on:** April 26, 2007, 09:37:00 PM »

bump.. has there been any progress regarding this?

that sucks you have to pay to have your hdd unlocked =*(

obcd · « **Reply #12 on:** April 27, 2007, 01:23:00 AM »

Hi,

Trowing away your (even defective) motherboard is like trowing away the key of your house. Without the key, you won't get in. To get in without a key, you will need some information about how the lock works so that you know the backdoors that exist to unlock it.

Those making the locks will not easily give you this information, since when it is widely spread, the lock uses it's function. (Only allowing those in with the key)

In case of HDD's, the lock pasword is somewhere stored on the system area of the disk. So, the major problem is to find the way to access and alter the information on that area. The way to do this will probably differ from brand to brand, and might even differ between different models.

Once you found your way in there, you could compare the information between a locked and a unlocked drive to see where it differs. The manufactures still can make it hard to find the correct information, as they can encrypt it with a DES algoritm so that the information of one drive can't be used on another.

You could try to do a bit of reverse engineering, for instance with a datalogger on the ata port of a drive. You could then run the unlock program and analyse the information that passes on the ata port. It will probably take a long time to analyse this information, and probably, it will only work for one brand of drive.

You might think that I am a doomthinking person that forgot to take his antidepressiva, but believe me, I have done some reverse engineering in the past, and the story is less bright then they wan't you to believe in movies when they do some hacking work.

Basically, the tools exist to unlock the xbox stock drives. If you put a larger disk in, you either don't have to lock it at all because you have a modchip, or you softmodded it and locked it afterwards, so you should know the key to lock it. Writing it on the disk is a good practice. Don't you have a spare key of your frontdoor somewhere around in case you loose yours?

I can understand you are a bit pissed you had to pay for just a code to use your disk again. But, their price is reasonable, and a second time, you will probably know your HDDKEY and won't need them anymore.

So, if they say on their website that it took a long time to develop the tools, I believe them. (Trust me, I don't work for them.)

Basically, what I am trying to explain is that, although what you are supposing probably is possible, you better might put your energy in something else, maybe more usefull. Unless of cause, you have already some of the critical information needed to work on.

regards.

Reminds me, I have to take my pills. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Author Topic: Unlocking A Hdd Without A Password Or Eeprom, Or Motherboard (Read 98 times)