Hard Drive Unlocker for UTV

[wildfrog]

This program will REFORMAT and unlock a drive locked with a utv using a normal pc.
THIS WILL COMPLETLY ERASE THE HARD DRIVE!!! It will not allow access to contents of the drive. This is only for re-using a utv locked drive without using your utv to unlock it. You have been warned.
To use this program
1: make a dos boot disk.
2: unzip mhd3.zip and copy mhd3.exe to the boot disk.
3: power down computer and hook drive into primary or secondary ide channel. It can be master or slave, and can be after a already installed drive such as a master cdrom.
4: Boot with dos disk.
5: run mhd3
6: select desired drive. The installed drives are listed 1 to 4.
7: Program will show what it is doing and then display a '.' every 10 seconds until done.
8: do not power off while running or you will have to start all over again.
9: program will tell you when it is finished.
It normally takes 28 minutes to clear an original utv drive. All this program does is allow re-use of a utv locked drive. It has no other use. Enjoy!

[Flagg]

Worked perfectly on a UTV locked Seagate drive. Quick and painless!

Thanks to whoever created this wonderful little tool.

Flagg

[DDF]

Thanks for info.

have 2 drives to unlock now. LOL


DDF

[aLfer]

wf, thanks for a great tool that will undoubtedly become invaluable for us utvers. ive heard of many success stories but I did run across a few problems with my WD 120gig. If anyone else has difficulty try this:

If you get a timeout error when the program sends the master password, shut down your machine and try it again, dont try to rerun the program as the drive seems to be not ready to accept any more commands after this.

Also, even if the program says it is complete after say 10 minutes, its a good idea to keep the computer on since it may not be finished zeroing. A good estimate is 30 minutes per 40 gigabytes, so if you have a 120 gig drive you need zeroed, wait about 1.5 hours. You can also hear the heads zeroing if you put the drive to your ear. Hope this helps, if anyone else has info please post. thanks again wf...

[xmx]

you are the greatest this program is the greatest thing since sliced bread!!!!!!

XMX

[rattman8]

doesnt work to good on the western digital 40 gig H/D does anyone rember the jumper settings for that hard drive in the UTV

please let me know

and if anyone know what works good for formating the W/D

thanks

[wildfrog]

The way you jumper the drive when using mhd3 depands on wether or not you put it in the pc as a master or slave. It has nothing to do with the way the utv wants it.

[wisegrape]

With this utility can I unlock and zero a current UTV drive and place it back into the UTV. I want to wipe a UTV drive and use it in the same UTV. Is this possible?

[DDF]

Yes you can use it in the same unit.

I found the program does not like windows XP pro, use win 98 or 95.

Is a great program. was able to save my 3.5 image and use the drive that was locked.

DDF

[azbill]

As has been said this program is FANTASTIC! However, what would make it better, would be an option to unlock without erasing. I find that I need that option at this time. Does anyone know of a way to unlock a drive from a UTV without destroying the data? AZBill

[aLfer]

azbill,

The only way to unlock a utv drive is to do it the same way the utv itself does, by using the user password. This is always different for each drive and the only way to get the password right now is sniff it out of the ata communication using a logic analyzer. The master password, on the other hand, is constant for all UTV drives. With maximum security set and only having a master password available, as all UTV hard drives are, the only thing we can do is format the drive completely, thereby unlocking it.

[azbill]

Hey aLfer - Thanks for the info, wasn't what I wanted to hear, but that's the way it goes. You seem quite knowledgeable, so I'll ask you another question. I have an 80GB maxtor that I put 3.5 on and the UTV still tries to dial out each time it boots. Pu the same file on a wd45gb and it boots? Any suggestions. AZBill

[ucpho]

This is a great program.
I unlocked my hd without a problem.

Much thanks to the one that create this nice util.

[aLfer]

azbill,

Yeah unfortunately that is the way these drives work. I have heard rumors of someone working on a password generator, so perhaps one day we will be able to unlock the hard drive, but until then all we can do is the hot swap trick. As for your problem, check out the post by bcti on this thread: http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/sh...threadid=24742

If you follow those directions verbatim you should be able to restore 3.5 on your utv. It has worked for me on several drives and most other people as well. I would say just try again and make sure you write the image to the right offset. Good luck..

aLfer

[azbill]

Hey aLfer - I found my problem, was a dumb*ss mistake on my part! Did not put the Maxtor in the master mode. All's well now. Thanks for the assist. AZBill