Unlock Western Digital ATA Password

Unlock Western Digital ATA password

For those who had set the ATA password for Western Digital HDD and forgot the password, try to use this guide to unlock the hdd. Not sure whether it could unlock the other brand or model, but at least for my own unit, WD1600AAJS it can work perfectly.

Prepare this tools

1. 1.44 Floppy drive

2. MHDD Version 4.5 in floppy image self extract. 

(http://hddguru.com/download/software/mhdd/mhdd32ver4.5floppy.exe)

3. MHDD.zip with script file modified from hddguru .dump

 (http://forum.hddguru.com/download/file.php?id=1434)

4. Victoria software, available from Hiren’s Boot CD (http://www.hirensbootcd.org/files/Hirens.BootCD.15.1.zip)

5. Ultraedit tools (www.ultraedit.com › Downloads)

I have read through all forum publish on internet, mostly from hddguru and spend a couple of days to understand the hex to dec conversion, alt-Gr + Key… but all those thing seems like complicated to me. Luckily I found a blog from (http://elettrofreak.blogspot.com/2011/02/estrarre-le-password-ata-da-un-hard.html). I follow the instruction and it work for my case.

In summary, this is the step I did,

1. Download MHDD floppy image self extract and run it to prepare the bootable floppy disk. Luckily I still keep a usb floppy drive and able to find a useable 1.44Mb disk from museum.

2. Go to your floppy drive, there is a folder call MHDD with a file mhdd.zip, you may unzip the file and place it back to the same folder

3. Download MHDD.zip from hddguru, unzip it

4. Copy the scripts folder to your a:\mhdd\scripts folder (you should able to see dump, dump2, dum48 files in the scripts folder)

5. Copy cs.bin from the mhdd.zip to a:\mhdd folder

6. Now boot your system with the hdd locked with the floppy bootable disk

7. You will entering to MS Dos command screen with drive C: ram drive

8. Type this in the dos command prompt

    A:
   Cd mhdd
   Mhdd.exe

9. You will go in to MHDD program

10. Press shift+F3

11. The screen will show the available HDD, key in the hdd number

12. Then press F2

13. It will said that your hdd is locked

14. Now, type ".dump"

15. The script will process, and once it is down, it will generate 2 file in your floppy drive a:\mhdd folder, 

(21.bin and 22.bin)

16. Now plug in your floppy drive to another working pc loaded with ultra edit

17. Open the 22.bin file.

The user password and master password is 32Byte each start at 000170H, position 8 onward, total 32 set of hex character, please highlight the hex value total 64 set of hex character and go to file-save selection as another file name, I name it as pw1

Now copy the pw1 file to usb drive, download Hiren’s Boot CD, then create the bootable CD

Use the bootable CD to boot up your pc, choose to boot using Win XP Lite version, then load victorial software from the menu HBCD -> Hard Disk/Storage--> Victoria

When you loaded the Victoria software, you will see by default it will select “API” mode, from here you can see your hdd. Double click on your hdd, it will display the information and in the security it will show “Locked”.

Now try to change the mode from “API” to “PIO”, then press on “PCI SCAN”, you will see a few record on your left hand to show the controller.

You need to try your luck to click on the controller that is connected to your HDD. Try to click on PCI Scan again until you found a record with the flag “DRDY-drive ready”

Now, plug in your USB drive with the pw1 file that you save previously into the computer. From the security Manager, click the “F”, then browse to the pw1 file, after that, press “UNLOCK”

You will see that now your HDD security is OFF

Reboot your pc and the HDD is unlock.