Un-write-protecting an external FW drive

[el suprimo]

The other day I was doing some work in iMovie and my G5 locked up. After a forced restart my external FW drive no longer mounted. I ran Disk Utility on it. It could see, backup, verify and repair the disk, but couldn't erase or mount it.

I then tried it on my iBook under both OS X and then 9.2. Still nothing. I tried a different cable. Nothing. I even tried hooking it up to my WinXP Pro box. Still nothing. At this point I'm unconcerned with rescuing data; I just want to be able to use the thing again!

Today I ran Disk Warrior on it. Three times. Each time I was told that a disk malfunction had occurred and that I need to rebuild the disk again (error 2351, -36). The last time I rebuilt it I did a Preview and that's when I saw that the drive appeared to be write-protected.

So how do I remove that write protection if I can't even mount the disk? Any ideas?

[trevor]

You could try DiskWarrior's 'scavenge' mode. Press the Option key, if memory serves, and the button to repair your drive changes to "Scavenge".

There's also Data Rescue X http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

Or, can you remove the drive from the FW case and mount it in one of your Macs? This will depend very much on exactly what drive you have in the FW case and what Macs you have available. It would work perfectly if you have access to a PowerMac G3 or G4 and a 3.5" ATA drive inside the FW case. Less perfectly with other configurations.

Trevor

[el suprimo]

Thanks for the tip. I tried the Scavenge mode, but received the very same error as before.

I think I'm screwed.

[macsolver]

Hi,

I had a similar problem on an external HD a few years ago. I am trying to remember what I did.....

I used Lacie Silverling disk formatting software (free with Lacie HDDs) which runs under OS 8.6 or 9. There are a number of small hidden partitions and one can be set to "lock" the main partition..... I think.... not sure. These only show up in Silverlining or similar specialist formatting software.

I think that I had to do a low level reformat as FAT32 the a low level reformat to HFS+. Then it worked OK.

Not sure if this will help you, but it may. Good luck!

Regards,

Nick

[el suprimo]

Just for poops and giggles I checked IBM's web site and discovered, much to my surprise, that my hard drive is still under warrranty. As soon as my RMA arrives, that drive is history.

Thanks for all the help!