[Pilot_51]

Hi, I have a few problems with a 80GB IDE laptop hard drive, all which appear to be related. The drive model is Toshiba MK8025GAS. It was an upgrade to a 20GB drive which I am using now with no problem. The laptop (with the drive) was owned by my dad when it started acting up with blue screens and such in XP, then once I backed up the drive and couldn't get it back to working condition it was given to me; my dad didn't want to use the 20GB drive or buy a new drive since the laptop is 10 years old and he already has a newer laptop. The laptop is a Gateway Solo 5300.
I can accept if this drive is physically ruined (if so it would be the first HDD I take apart), but I want to be sure because I could use the extra drive.

1. When trying to view it in a partition manager such as Gparted, it is not detected at all.

2. When connecting it to a desktop via USB adapter, it has trouble being detected. On XP, it is recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device, but it doesn't go beyond that, it should recognize the HDD model even without any partitions. Ubuntu doesn't recognize it at all.

3. Using several programs on the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD), the hard drive is shown to be locked. I don't believe it was locked before it started having problems and I'm certain it wasn't manually locked after purchase. I have a feeling it could have been locked by itself due to a glitch which my previous research indicated is a possibility. I have no clue what the password could be and my simple attempts to unlock it have failed.

4. Again using several UBCD programs, attempts to wipe the drive with zeros are extremely slow, well under 1MB/s and estimated to take 100 to 500 hours. That's unacceptable especially since I need to use the laptop at least once a week.

[Megabite]

Sounds like the drive is toast.....

[Pilot_51]

Thanks.

I'll take the lack of further replies as indication that nobody else has a differing opinion. I guess I'll need to accept it. Here's where it gets interesting, I get to take it apart. If I see any damage I'll definitely take some pictures and maybe post them here for anyone interested.