#Prodiscover basic hpa dco free
I used a free programme called DiskCheckup from .Īfter running the programme and selecting the affected disk I clicked the 'hidden' tab to find 3 input boxes.
I have had a recent problem with a 1TB drive reported as 1KB and Disk Manager reported no media. Per the instructions, you add the following "I accept the consequences" switch: # hdparm -yes-i-know-what-i-am-doing -dco-restore /dev/sdx Please supply the -yes-i-know-what-i-am-doing flag if you really want this. This may change the apparent capacity and feature set of the drive, You are trying to deliberately reset your drive configuration back to On a wiped disk, you already have lost the data, eh? Basically a Sorry you didn't back up your data before proceeding, you're SOL if the DCO doesn't match after the command's run and you think anything will be recoverable from the drive because of size reassignment. Think of it as changing the partition size or wiping out the partition table and restoring it with incorrect parameters. It will spit back at you the following warning that changing the DCO will cause total data loss. If you want to attempt reverting the DCO back to factory defaults, you can use the followning HDPARM command: # hdparm -dco-restore /dev/sdx So, your drive manufacturer uses DCO to define the allowable data transfer modes (MDMA, UDMA), the real size of the drive (max sectors), and ATA/SATA commands that can be disabled. (?): selective_test conveyance_test write_read_verify SMART self_test error_log security HPA 48_bit Udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6(?) The following features can be selectively disabled via DCO: To see the DCO, use the following HDPARM command. But then that's the least of your problems if you think you got some sophisticated malware that could actually mess with it. Since the DCO is set up by the manufacturer, you must accept that messing with it will possibly brick the drive. To use HDPARM to check if a DCO is in place and set it back to factory defaults
Setting max visible sectors to 78165360 (permanent) It will spit back a report that the visible area is equal to the max sectors and that the HPA is disabled.
#Prodiscover basic hpa dco full size
To remove the HPA and expand the visible area out to the full size of the drive use the denominator in the above report (visible area/max sectors): # hdparm -N p78165360 /dev/sdx It will spit back something like the following if you have an HPA defined: /dev/sdx: Out of approximately sixty-seven parameters, several are dangerous and could result in "massive filesystem corruption" when used indiscriminately.įire up your Linux boot disk and run hdparmįor x = device you're targeting, use the following HDPARM command to show if you have an HPA enabled. Hdparm has a more serious drawback: it can crash a computer and make data on its disk inaccessible if certain parameters are misused. So, there can be no data corruption or file system corruption as neither exist, DBAN having ensured this and so the following HDPARM warning is not applicable. So we have a basic admission here the drive was wiped so therefore there is no partition table, file system or data on the drive. Later came to know that DBAN does not kill HPA (host protected area) and DCO (Drive configuration overlay) So, wiped drive with DBAN foolishly (PRNG, 8 pass).