Thinkpads Forum

hello! i recently bought a couple of hard drives (hitachi 60gb & fujitsu 80gb) to use as a external hd . i want to reformat them, however i cannot seem to see them when i plug it un my usb caddy. my tp41 recognize that i have plug in an external drive, but no letter drive are display in 'my computer'. i believe they are both lock/password protected as they were pulled from ibm laptops.

i don't want the info on the drives; i just want to reformat it completely. i believe the drive are in working order as i can hear it spin.

i appreciate any advise you can offer.

Sounds more like they've been wiped and there's no active partition on them.

If they were PW protected you'd be prompted for the PW when you plug them into your T41.

Try going into sysem utilities and run FDISK on them to set a partition, then FORMAT them.

Regards,

James

If you load the drive into a USB enclosure and attach it to the system, you won't see the drive letter and won't be able to access it via Windows or Dos. The only password prompt you are going to get is on boot up if the drive is attached and scanned by the bios. Best bet would be to load the drive into a bay tray and remove the password on startup by clearing it within the bios.

MG.

thanks for the suggestions. is there any other way to access and format the hd using an external usb caddy? it seems a bit complicated to install in directly into my t41.

i'll try the direct connection after work if there is no other alternative. thanks.

jonz wrote:i'll try the direct connection after work if there is no other alternative. thanks.

MG meant to install it in a 2nd HD adapter in the bay, which is what I thought you had said you did in your original post. One of the perils of speed reading!

But swapping the "locked" drive for the primary drive in your T41 will establish for certain whether or not it's PW protected on the first BOOT.

Regards,

James

MobileGuru wrote:remove the password on startup by clearing it within the bios.

HD passwords can't be removed within the BIOS. Only if you HAVE the PW.

jonz wrote:is there any other way to access and format the hd using an external usb caddy?

If it's not PW protected, try this (I assume you are running WinXP):
Connect the drive.
Go to: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

If the drive is funtional, it should show up in the lower part on the right site. I can show up as unactive or unallocated or something. Activate, allocate, partition, assign drive letter, format it... what ever is necessary to get it running.

If it's not PW protected, try this (I assume you are running WinXP):
Connect the drive.
Go to: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

If the drive is funtional, it should show up in the lower part on the right site. I can show up as unactive or unallocated or something. Activate, allocate, partition, assign drive letter, format it... what ever is necessary to get it running.

so i tried this suggestion; i plugged the hd using an external usb drive and went into the Disk Management (DM). However, I was not able too see the usb hd. i can hear it spin but it does not show up in DM. I borrowed a friend usb laptop hd to test it in mine and DM can detect it.

is the reason i can see it b/c its pwd locked?

are there any other methods i can try? thanks for the help.

jonz wrote:

If it's not PW protected, try this (I assume you are running WinXP):
Connect the drive.
Go to: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management

If the drive is funtional, it should show up in the lower part on the right site. I can show up as unactive or unallocated or something. Activate, allocate, partition, assign drive letter, format it... what ever is necessary to get it running.

so i tried this suggestion; i plugged the hd using an external usb drive and went into the Disk Management (DM). However, I was not able too see the usb hd. i can hear it spin but it does not show up in DM. I borrowed a friend usb laptop hd to test it in mine and DM can detect it.

is the reason i can see it b/c its pwd locked?

are there any other methods i can try? thanks for the help.

Just thought of something else: what type of thinkpad do you have? On some Thinkpads - like an R31 that I happen to have kicking around, one USB port does not supply a full .5A of power while the other does. Try using a different USB port to make sure that the drive has enough power to spin before giving up. Alternatively, hook up the drive to a separate power supply (most USB disk cases have a plug for this.)

Dealing with my many USB hard drives, this is what I do:
Computer is on with external drive plugged into USB port. Use power supply for external drive. Turn external drive on or connect external drive power supply. Windows should give some indication of external hardware. Go to Disc Management and format external drive.

jonz wrote: i plugged the hd using an external usb drive and went into the Disk Management (DM). However, I was not able too see the usb hd. i can hear it spin but it does not show up in DM. I borrowed a friend usb laptop hd to test it in mine and DM can detect it.

is the reason i can see it b/c its pwd locked?

are there any other methods i can try? thanks for the help.

Sounds like a pwd locked hard drive to me.
Did you try booting with it plugged in to see if you get a password prompt?