Hard drive keeps locking after secure erase? Is it dying?

[LB3]

Setup: I recently used PartedMagic to secure erase 2 identical Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 6GB/s HDD. During the secure erase process, I noticed that one drive was operating at approximately 20mb/s and it took almost 7 hours for the secure erase to complete. While the other drive was operating at approximately 110mb/s.

Issue: After booting into Windows, Intel Matrix Storage Manager told me that I had a locked disk. It was one of the drives I just secure erased. I am able to unlock the drive. I was also able to allocate the drive using Windows Disk Management and it seems the drive is working normally. But, on each reboot, it is locked again.

Question: Is it dying? Are there good utilities to determine it's current status using more detailed tests?

Additional Info: I'm using neither as a boot drive and I had them setup in a striped array using Windows Disk Management for 4 years. I'm currently not storing anything on the quirky drive for fear it is nearing the end. Both PartedMagic and Intel Matrix Storage Manager are saying the drive is "Good" or "Okay" and it's able to pass simple, top-level tests but it's current behavior makes me think otherwise. It is also passing Windows Check Disk.

Thank you for your feedback. My knowledge of HDD is very limited so please let me know if you need any further info.

 

[ronintexas]

Something appears to be wrong with the drive - given the age of the drive, and the performance for the secure erase - I would replace that drive. WD has testing software on their site: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=616&lang=en

The Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tools should give you an answer....

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, LB3!

I'm very sorry to hear about your WD Black drive. 🙁
I strongly recommend taking ronintexas' suggestion on WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics ( http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=wUNe7t )
This utility will let you test the drive's health and SMART status. (Please run the quick and the extended test and share the results)
It also has the option to securely write zeros (FULLY ERASE) your drive. Here's an article from our knowledge base that explains how to perform this: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=xRbTkg

Keep us posted! Hope this helps!
SuperSoph_Wd

 

[fzabkar]

@LB3, how are you unlocking the drive?

Note that the ATA secure erase procedure locks the drive with an ATA password while the drive is being erased. ISTM that you may be unlocking the drive (by answering a password challenge), but it appears that this setting does not persist after a power cycle. Instead you need to disable the password permanently, not just for the current session. You could do this with hdparm, MHDD, Victoria for Windows.

More information at the HDD Oracle forum.

http://www.alexsoft.org

 

[LB3]

@LB3, how are you unlocking the drive?

Note that the ATA secure erase procedure locks the drive with an ATA password while the drive is being erased. ISTM that you may be unlocking the drive (by answering a password challenge), but it appears that this setting does not persist after a power cycle. Instead you need to disable the password permanently, not just for the current session. You could do this with hdparm, MHDD, Victoria for Windows.

More information at the HDD Oracle forum.

http://www.alexsoft.org

From the Intel Matrix Storage Manager program, I'm right clicking the drive and selecting Unlock. It then prompts me for a password and I click Okay, without entering a password. It seems to successfully unlock the drive until rebooting. I'll check out the link above as well. Thank you.

 

[LB3]

Hey there, LB3!

I'm very sorry to hear about your WD Black drive. 🙁
I strongly recommend taking ronintexas' suggestion on WD Data LifeGuard Diagnostics ( http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=wUNe7t )
This utility will let you test the drive's health and SMART status. (Please run the quick and the extended test and share the results)
It also has the option to securely write zeros (FULLY ERASE) your drive. Here's an article from our knowledge base that explains how to perform this: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=xRbTkg

Keep us posted! Hope this helps!
SuperSoph_Wd

I ran the Quick and Extended Tests on both drives for comparison. Surprisingly, each drive finished the extended test in about 2 hours without any issues.

AS SSD Benchmark:
Good drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpBioDHluxTWlFzVG5HM2pVaG8/view?usp=sharing
Not-so-good drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpBioDHluxTVWdHVjB5S0p3ekE/view?usp=sharing

Good drive:
Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD6402AAEX-00Z3A0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCATR4014043
Firmware Number: 05.01D05
Capacity: 640.13 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 15:04:13, February 02, 2015

Not-so-good drive:
Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD6402AAEX-00Z3A0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WCATR4014811
Firmware Number: 05.01D05
Capacity: 640.13 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 17:07:36, February 02, 2015

 

[ronintexas]

You should write all zeros to the drive, it is similar to the old "low level format" of the drive - and it will get rid of the passwords. Don't use intel matrix storage manager unless you are setting up RAID - use the disk management utility in Windows.

 

[LB3]

You should write all zeros to the drive, it is similar to the old "low level format" of the drive - and it will get rid of the passwords. Don't use intel matrix storage manager unless you are setting up RAID - use the disk management utility in Windows.

Thank you. The only reason I was using Intel Matrix Storage Manager at all was because it was alerting me to the locked drive. Typically, I use Windows Storage Management for all my drives. I'll try secure erasing again, although this is what got me here in the first place!

Is there an equivalent of writing all zeroes in Windows Disk Management? I typically use PartedMagic.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[ronintexas]

WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics has that utility - that is what I use - if you double click a drive when it launches, you can do a quick test, extended test, write zeroes or view test results.

 

[fzabkar]

Zero-filling the drive will not remove an ATA password.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hi again !

You should still try writing zeros (FULL ERASE) with the WD Data LifeGuard, even though fzabkar is write it won't remove the ATA password. However, if the drive is still under warranty I strongly recommend getting in touch with our tech support and let them know about the issue. They can either help you remove the locking issue (If you don't have the warranty) or walk you through the RMA process (if you want to replace the drive).
Here are their contacts: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=srJxUy
How to RMA your product: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=BKseDw

Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[fzabkar]

hdparm --security-disable NULL /dev/ice

... where "ice" = sda, sdb, etc

 

[LB3]

@SuperSoph I'll give WD Data LifeGuard a try first

@fzabkar I'll then head into hdparm and remove the security. I'm assuming hdparm is command line and that's what I need to enter. I've never used the program before. What determines whether I use sda, sdb, etc?

The drive is most likely not under warranty but I will contact WD support if needed.

Thanks.

 

[fzabkar]

hdparm is a Linux command.

Try Victoria instead. Just use 32 zero bytes for the password.

Tutorial: Using Victoria to send ATA passwords as file:
http://www.alexsoft.org/viewtopic.php?t=1072&p=4870#p4870

 

[LB3]

I spoke too soon. After a recent reboot. Intel Matrix Storage told me the disk was locked again. I'm moving on to Victoria.

 

[LB3]

Quick update: I contacted WD support and provided them with all the same information as above. They suggested an RMA. I had no idea that warranties lasted so long on hard drives, I bought this in 2011!! Thank you for your input.