# Help on how to unlock sata drive & reinstall tivo



## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

Hi all

Did a hooch install on an old sky disc that i had and it stuck on powering up so would like to unlock it and try again, only problem is it is a sata drive and diskutil keeps timing out.

I install it with a sata-ide adaptor but this keeps showing it as a master drive and the software won't work with a master drive.

So any help on wiping it and reinstalling with hooch

Robert


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

It should work with a master drive providing it's not on the primary channel. 

Which ide-to-sata adaptor are you using? The better ones have a jumper on the adapter which allows you to switch between master/slave.

Alternatively you could either:
- install on the middle connector on the primary IDE cable (which your PC should then detect as 'slave')
or
- install on the secondary IDE cable.

Adjust the the drive designator to diskutil appropriately.


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

Sorry still no luck, tried it as slave on primary with the cd rom as cable select-master refuses to boot, can't even get into the bios, then tried it as slave on the secondary but it still shows up as master on the secondary channel.

Have tried this on a couple of different computers with the same result, funny thing is i had around 6 old drives that were lying around due to upgrades to the tivo and they all unlocked bar this one ( but this is the only true sata drive the others still had jumpers)

Anyone any ideas before i bin it

Robert


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

Which ide-to-sata adapter are you using?

Many of the cheap ones from China/HK will only work with SATA I discs and won't work at all with SATA II discs.


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

Yes i am afraid it is a cheap chinese one from years ago that seems to have been working okay .

The drive is a Maxtor quickview 3G320E0 drive.

As its a good drive supposed to last in excess of 5 years and i only had the sky box for a year before i upgraded the drive i would like to keep using it.

So can you recommend me an adaptor that would work ?

Robert


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## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

RobbyBoy said:


> Sorry still no luck, tried it as slave on primary with the cd rom as cable select-master refuses to boot, can't even get into the bios, then tried it as slave on the secondary but it still shows up as master on the secondary channel.


Secondary master should be OK?


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

RobbyBoy said:


> So can you recommend me an adaptor that would work ?


There are two considerations:
- getting the adapter to work at all ! 
- finding one that the Tivo drivers like

A few people have had success with the sub-£10 ones but it's very much hit or (more usually) miss.

I listed a few that should work, on my post here.

I can recommend the Startech IDE2SAT (c.£11) - it's physically small (plugs into the back of the drive), has a jumper for master/slave and works straight out of the box.


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

TCM2007 said:


> Secondary master should be OK?


Thanks when i tried diskutil with any drives on master it timed out all the time, it only worked when a drive was slave


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

spitfires said:


> There are two considerations:
> - getting the adapter to work at all !
> - finding one that the Tivo drivers like
> 
> ...


Thanks will look into them

Funny thing is the cheap one that i have has worked in the tivo for years now with 2 sata upgrades (although they were WD drives)

Robert


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

Yes I've read that the WD drives are a bit more 'tolerant' than the Maxtor/Seagate drives. Perhaps that's why they are more expensive?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

spitfires said:


> There are two considerations:
> - getting the adapter to work at all !
> - finding one that the Tivo drivers like
> 
> ...


You should have posted those adapters here

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=416883

and if you'd read that thread first you probably could have gotten the new Rosewill for a fair amount less than the Startech.


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

Thanks for the helpful replies i am going to try qunlock on the drive if i can find out how to get it on a cd first, as i know its a Maxtor and it is definitely locked

Robert


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

RobbyBoy said:


> Hi all
> 
> Did a hooch install on an old sky disc that i had and it stuck on powering up so would like to unlock it and try again, only problem is it is a sata drive and diskutil keeps timing out.
> 
> ...


Jumper the drive for 1.5 instead of 3, use that adapter, and try the version of diskutil on the MFS Live CD v1.4

Also on that cd is hdparm

hdparm -N /dev/hda

will show you if you've got a host protected area (HPA) on that disk and (if you aren't using one of those Gigabyte motherboards that insist on putting one on every hard drive they see) you can use

hdparm -N p(insert max block number here) /dev/hda

to get rid of it.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

RobbyBoy said:


> Thanks for the helpful replies i am going to try qunlock on the drive if i can find out how to get it on a cd first, as i know its a Maxtor and it is definitely locked
> 
> Robert


DO NOT USE QUNLOCK!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE QUNLOCK!!!!!!!!!!

DO NOT USE QUNLOCK!!!!!!!!!!

If it's not an actual original Quantum drive qunlock will hose it permanently, and leave you with a nice shiny paperweight.

Figure out how to use diskutil instead.


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

unitron said:


> You should have posted those adapters here...[...] and if you'd read that thread first you probably could have gotten the new Rosewill for a fair amount less than the Startech.


I did read it first. You can't get Rosewill adapters in the UK.

Conversely there is no point in posting a message about adapters which are only available in the UK/Germany on a USA thread.



unitron said:


> DO NOT USE QUNLOCK!!!!!!!!!!


qunlock works just fine on Maxtor discs.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

spitfires said:


> I did read it first. You can't get Rosewill adapters in the UK.
> 
> Conversely there is no point in posting a message about adapters which are only available in the UK/Germany on a USA thread.


Unless someone reads it and then finds one of them on their local Craigslist or eBay, then they'd already know if they want it or not.

I lean towards preferring to have too much knowledge rather than too little.

You never know when the extra might suddenly become useful, but not if you don't have it.



spitfires said:


> qunlock works just fine on Maxtor discs.


Any Maxtor? Including the ones from before Maxtor bought Quantum? The ones from after Seagate bought Maxtor?

I'd rather not roll those particular dice.


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

unitron said:


> Jumper the drive for 1.5 instead of 3, use that adapter, and try the version of diskutil on the MFS Live CD v1.4
> 
> Also on that cd is hdparm
> 
> ...


Thanks unitron the jumper changes the disc name and properties but still time-outs with diskutil.

hdparm shows max sections 0/5291632
when i try to do the above with the small p i get around 12 errors with the following included.
drive not ready for command
status timeout
failed opcodewas
all seem to have 0x error codes

If i try --dco-restore then type yes i get a flashing y for hours

This is the most i have posted here for years probably even more than when i was first upgrading my drives

Robert


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

RobbyBoy said:


> Thanks unitron the jumper changes the disc name and properties but still time-outs with diskutil.
> 
> hdparm shows max sections 0/5291632
> when i try to do the above with the small p i get around 12 errors with the following included.
> ...


The jumper changes the disk name?

On your computer's bios page?

After you boot from the MFS Live CD and run fdisk -l, or pdisk-l, or hdparm -N?

Try hdparm -i /dev/whatever and hdparm -I /dev/whatever and do both with both the limiting jumper on and off. See if you get inconsistent answers.

What brand and model of computer motherboard are you using with which to work on this drive?


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

Most likely you are getting errors from the adapter you are using. I think you need to find a native SATA-equipped mobo and try it on that. Otherwise you can't rule out the _adapter_ as being the source of the errors you are seeing.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

spitfires said:


> Most likely you are getting errors from the adapter you are using. I think you need to find a native SATA-equipped mobo and try it on that. Otherwise you can't rule out the _adapter_ as being the source of the errors you are seeing.


Oh, you're talking about the same errors in disk name/size/geometry that a flaky IDE cable causes, right?

Yeah, the limiting jumper shouldn't cause anything like that unless there's something seriously wrong with the drive's own electronics.

(good luck with the UK S1 problem, which could become ours at any time)


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## spitfires (Dec 19, 2006)

Yep. He's plugging a SATA disc into an IDE mobo via an IDE-to-SATA adapter. Since the adapter is "active" (i.e. it changes the signals) you need to rule out the adapter as causing the errors. Cheap adapters can cause all sorts of silly "apparent" errors that magically go away when you plug the SATA disc direct into a SATA mobo (i.e. take the adapter away).


(thanks for your support)


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## RobbyBoy (Apr 21, 2003)

Well thanks to everyone for the answers been busy but as the message from today i don't think i need to bother with this now, i will put the old 40gb back in and use it for cctv .

btw tried it connected direct by sata and got the unlocked section showing up but nothing in the locked section.

Thanks

Robert


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