format blocked read/write external harddrive

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I have this hdd, has 1TB, and it had windows 8.1. it happened the BSOD, and the IT guy said that it was impossible to recover. but the HDD works, it takes ages for windows to load it up but at some time I can see the HDD on "my computer". the problem is that it's written and read blocked, so I can open it, but it will show a drive with no size and with nothing inside.

how can I format or wype this drive? I can't format with windows since it says "unknown error occurred while formatting". a program I used said it was read and write protected.

any idea on how do I get rid of that read/write protection? there is no way to format, not even Gparted was able to format that thing... I suspect the drive is full of errors, but than again, I can't correct the errors if it's read and write blocked...
 
Solution
D_Know_WD
Hi there Khidreal,

My guess is that the drive is in a really poor condition.

As you've used some tools on it, I believe you can test it as well. Use some of these and observe the SMART report: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
Look for reallocated/pending and uncorrectable sectors.

As for wiping the drive, you don't really have many options. It is either through Win or with some third party tool. Yet again, I don't really think that there is any point in that, as it most probably has multiple physical bad sectors on it and it will not be usable even if you manage to format/wipe it.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD :)
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thx1138v2

Splendid
Jun 18, 2011
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Read and/or write protection on an HDD is implemented via firmware. So either the controller card is bad or the low level format on the disk is bad. The only thing I can think of that might work is to get another drive that has exactly the same controller board and try it on this drive. That, however, will probably cost more than the bad drive is worth and if you do find one you'll be taking the controller off of a working drive to try to it on a non-working drive in which case the working drive won't have a controller board. The sensible thing to do is pitch the bad drive and get another one.
 
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I forgot to mention: that driver I have, was the driver that came with my computer, I just bought a 5 euro case so that I could make it an external drive to see if it's working, apart from that, this bad HDD was the internal drive of my PC, till I had the BSOD... I was using SATA, the case I bought is for SATA too.

do you know anything that can force that HDD to format or even wype? that's all I want, or at least remove those protections... by the way, any chance the drive is encrypted? I got BSOD from nowere, maybe a virus caused it and encrypted the HDD?
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

Judicious
Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there Khidreal,

My guess is that the drive is in a really poor condition.

As you've used some tools on it, I believe you can test it as well. Use some of these and observe the SMART report: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
Look for reallocated/pending and uncorrectable sectors.

As for wiping the drive, you don't really have many options. It is either through Win or with some third party tool. Yet again, I don't really think that there is any point in that, as it most probably has multiple physical bad sectors on it and it will not be usable even if you manage to format/wipe it.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD :)
 
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Solution
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Guest

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I gave that HDD to an IT technician yesterday and he told me that the HDD had serious physical problems this morning and there was nothing I could do. probably what you said, physical bad sectors...
 
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