Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Hacking Skills. Hard Drive ATA Security Unlock

So, I inherited a 2TB hard drive from someone that ripped apart a cloud storage device for fun, and had no use for the hard drive... Random right? I tried using the drive in a server I was making, but the Linux install would freak out any time I tried to format the drive. I figured there was some kind of lock on it, I've never dealt with it before so I've never had to know anything about it. But at last, a reason had risen.

I gave up on the drive, and just a couple days ago decided to use it again. I ordered a second of the same model to use in a mirrored raid setup. Then the true problem surfaced. When I put the hard drive into my computer, and booted up, I was presented with a hard drive password unlock screen from my bios. Answered my previous questions pretty quick on why I couldn't use the drive. First thing I did was try the name of the cloud company the drive was pulled from. I figured if they were going to be as fancy as putting a hard drive lock on it, they weren't going to be that dumb. But why not try? I've prayed on peoples innocent negligence before. Didn't work this time though.

Then it was on to the google searches. For some reason the searches weren't very direct and helpful at first. I had to piece together information on locked drives from several sources, and eventually found a linux work around that did the trick.

Here's a link to a post I made in reply to someone that was the most helpful

Took some work! and about five hours of my time. But I'm glad I figured it out. Since I already have a matching hard drive being shipped to me, I really needed this one to work. The drive was a little on the expensive side compared to another deal I found, but this drive is quiet, and had good reviews. So I figured they could be brothers! And now they will be.

Monday, February 16, 2015

New Year

Never enough time in the day to do all the things you want to. I need to be updating this blog more often, and writing in my journal, and going to the gym, and studying languages, and studying networking, and designing newer better websites...

A change will happen here eventually. I've got a lot of planning and goal making to do.

Top on the list, I need to study for my Ham Radio license. At the very least I need to review the question pool for the first level license. But with how much I've increased in programming capacity, I really want to get the online tests completed. That ought to bring in some site revenue, and attract more visitors for a real cause.

Another reason for thinking of updating this blog randomly, I help a family man change his car tire about a week ago. Maybe two; time fly fast. He was an awesome guy, and I wish I had gotten more contact information from him. He's affiliated with a company or a group that does 5K runs around the country. One of them coming up this year is in my home town, Fort Worth, Texas. I wont spill too many details in the case it's not supposed to be released yet... But it sounded worth driving home for to participate. Depending on when it is, I just might. This is where google becomes my friend!

I'll end this with a link to my sisters blog. She's gotten busier with family responsibilities over the past few months, and her stuff is mostly for women... But I still think it's pretty cool. She designed a calendar for 2015. Check it out here, sherbertcafe.blogspot.com. She's quite the crafty sister!