Hello,
I'm back.

To recap: I reported last week I couldn't access my storage drive and XP was reporting a controller error. I replaced the the ribbon with a new ribbon. Connected the drive as Master and booted from WD Lifeguard utlities and the diagnostic reported locked drive error 220.

After lots of research, I now know the drive is present at Bios, detected by Bios. Also, when I access Device Manager, click on Devices-Disk Drives, the drive is present. Right clicking on the drive, Windows reports this drive is working properly. when I try launch Disk Management it crashes. Logical Disk Manager-The remote procedure call failed.

Any thoughts?

"Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in news:76E79C75-9CC6-4388-A02A-(E-Mail Removed):
> Hello,
> I'm back.
>
> To recap: I reported last week I couldn't access my storage drive and
> XP was reporting a controller error. I replaced the the ribbon with a
> new ribbon. Connected the drive as Master and booted from WD
> Lifeguard utlities and the diagnostic reported locked drive error
> 220.
>
> After lots of research, I now know the drive is present at Bios,
> detected by Bios. Also, when I access Device Manager, click on
> Devices-Disk Drives, the drive is present. Right clicking on the
> drive, Windows reports this drive is working properly. when I try
> launch Disk Management it crashes. Logical Disk Manager-The remote
> procedure call failed.
>
> Any thoughts?

Doesn't matter what happens in Windows. You've already mentioned that
WD's diag program (which boots using a DOS-bootable floppy) has detected
a lock error. Why are you concerned with what happens later in Windows
when you already know the direct diagnostics of the drive show it is
bad? While the interface circuity is working sufficiently to identify
the device, that doesn't mean the device will function correctly when
used. That just means the controller card on the hard drive is [mostly]
working.

Don't know what is your report from last week (and no link presented
here to it). If this is a new drive, why haven't you returned it to the
seller or gotten an RMA from WD to replace it? Or you could search WD's
online knowledgebase to find, say, http://snipurl.com/89ev. Are you
running a 3rd party security product that usurps the MBR (master boot
record), like Safeboot? Is this in a laptop or pre-built desktop that
incorporates security in its BIOS or in the MBR (you never mentioned
anything about what hardware you have)?

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Thanks Vanguard

email from WD:
It sounds like Windows XP has lost or is not finding the information it needs to recognize the drive and the data on it. You can try contacting Microsoft and ask how to make Windows XP recognize the drive and the data on it.

In response to your questions:
1. Error 220, Locked Drive, does not equal bad drive.
2. Why don't I just return the drive? Because it has 100GB of data I would like back.
3. No third party security product like Safeboot
4. Pre-built Desktop, Sony Vaio PCV RX490TV 1.7 GHZ Intel w/ Windows XP Home edition.

Also, you didn't address why Disk Management crashes, can I use to fix?
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;327020

"*Vanguard*" wrote:

> "Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote in news:76E79C75-9CC6-4388-A02A-(E-Mail Removed):
> > Hello,
> > I'm back.
> >
> > To recap: I reported last week I couldn't access my storage drive and
> > XP was reporting a controller error. I replaced the the ribbon with a
> > new ribbon. Connected the drive as Master and booted from WD
> > Lifeguard utlities and the diagnostic reported locked drive error
> > 220.
> >
> > After lots of research, I now know the drive is present at Bios,
> > detected by Bios. Also, when I access Device Manager, click on
> > Devices-Disk Drives, the drive is present. Right clicking on the
> > drive, Windows reports this drive is working properly. when I try
> > launch Disk Management it crashes. Logical Disk Manager-The remote
> > procedure call failed.
> >
> > Any thoughts?
>
> Doesn't matter what happens in Windows. You've already mentioned that
> WD's diag program (which boots using a DOS-bootable floppy) has detected
> a lock error. Why are you concerned with what happens later in Windows
> when you already know the direct diagnostics of the drive show it is
> bad? While the interface circuity is working sufficiently to identify
> the device, that doesn't mean the device will function correctly when
> used. That just means the controller card on the hard drive is [mostly]
> working.
>
> Don't know what is your report from last week (and no link presented
> here to it). If this is a new drive, why haven't you returned it to the
> seller or gotten an RMA from WD to replace it? Or you could search WD's
> online knowledgebase to find, say, http://snipurl.com/89ev. Are you
> running a 3rd party security product that usurps the MBR (master boot
> record), like Safeboot? Is this in a laptop or pre-built desktop that
> incorporates security in its BIOS or in the MBR (you never mentioned
> anything about what hardware you have)?
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
> __________________________________________________
>
>

"Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in news:2B7F1FE7-CA85-4E0A-B75F-(E-Mail Removed):
> Thanks Vanguard
>
> email from WD:
> It sounds like Windows XP has lost or is not finding the information
> it needs to recognize the drive and the data on it. You can try
> contacting Microsoft and ask how to make Windows XP recognize the
> drive and the data on it.
>
> In response to your questions:
> 1. Error 220, Locked Drive, does not equal bad drive.
> 2. Why don't I just return the drive? Because it has 100GB of data I
> would like back.
> 3. No third party security product like Safeboot
> 4. Pre-built Desktop, Sony Vaio PCV RX490TV 1.7 GHZ Intel w/ Windows
> XP Home edition.
>
> Also, you didn't address why Disk Management crashes, can I use to
> fix?
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;327020

I assume that you are running WD's diagnostics from a DOS-bootable
floppy and *not* from an install and execute of it under Windows. If
the lock error is occuring when booting into DOS and running the
diagnostics then anything in Windows for checking the drive is too late
and might actually mask or obfuscate the problem.

Is this the same drive from which Windows boots (called the system
partition)? Do you have Windows boot from the system partition, like
C:, but load the rest of it from a boot partition, like D: (see
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314470)? Is there only the WD 120GB
drive in your host, or is this 120GB drive the second, or later, drive?
If it is not the first drive or the one used to load Windows, have you
ran 'chkdsk /r' on it? If it does have the partition used to load
Windows, have you tried booting using the Windows install CD and running
Repair (the second one offered since the first Repair just puts you into
Recovery Console mode)? I don't know if Vaio's come with a real install
CD or just a disk image on a CD or in a hidden partition (which
overwrites everything in the restored partition).

Was this a recent problem? Has this drive been in usable service
before, and for how long? Was it after the drive got installed or
recently replaced? Is the bad drive formatted using FAT32 or NTFS?

Did you check the BIOS for any settings regarding locking the drive? If
the CMOS battery is going bad or dead, you lose your settings (back to
their defaults). I don't know what BIOS settings are available for Sony
Vaio hosts.


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Oh, and if you can get into Windows (because it loads from a different
drive), try doing a rescan of the hard drives in the Disk Management MMC
applet (diskmgmt.msc, Action -> Rescan Disks).

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Alright, I'll follow your suggestions. To run chkdsk/r do I go to Start - Run
and type chkdsk?

Thanks Vanguard

To follow up on your questions:
1. Your right, from Bootable disk provided by WD for install and
diagnostics. It has a diagnostic tool and an option is to check the drive.
That is where the 220 error is derived.

2. No, I have a seperate WD1200 for Systems and it is all on C. The drive in
question is the storage or slave drive.

3. I have not run chkdsk/r

4. It is a recent problem. The drive has been operating smoothly for about a
year.

5. Drive format, I don't recall, whatever WD recommended during install.

6. BIOS, can't find anything related to drive security.

"*Vanguard*" wrote:

> Oh, and if you can get into Windows (because it loads from a different
> drive), try doing a rescan of the hard drives in the Disk Management MMC
> applet (diskmgmt.msc, Action -> Rescan Disks).
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
> __________________________________________________
>
>

"Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in news6814074-15B0-49C3-9F36-(E-Mail Removed):
> Alright, I'll follow your suggestions. To run chkdsk/r do I go to
> Start - Run and type chkdsk?
>
> Thanks Vanguard
>
> To follow up on your questions:
> 1. Your right, from Bootable disk provided by WD for install and
> diagnostics. It has a diagnostic tool and an option is to check the
> drive. That is where the 220 error is derived.
>
> 2. No, I have a seperate WD1200 for Systems and it is all on C. The
> drive in question is the storage or slave drive.
>
> 3. I have not run chkdsk/r
>
> 4. It is a recent problem. The drive has been operating smoothly for
> about a year.
>
> 5. Drive format, I don't recall, whatever WD recommended during
> install.
>
> 6. BIOS, can't find anything related to drive security.
>
> "*Vanguard*" wrote:
>
>> Oh, and if you can get into Windows (because it loads from a
>> different drive), try doing a rescan of the hard drives in the Disk
>> Management MMC applet (diskmgmt.msc, Action -> Rescan Disks).
>>
>> --
>> __________________________________________________
>> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
>> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
>> __________________________________________________

ATA-5 provides password locking of a drive. You might have to call Sony
tech support to find out from them how to unlock it. The idea is that
if the hard drive gets removed from a stolen laptop that it remain
unusable to the thief. It's a combo of BIOS support and password on the
drive (probably in the MBR or elsewhere on track 0).

When I went to their support page (http://www.iq.sony.com/). By
searching on "PCVRX490TV", there was a link to http://snipurl.com/89kp.
The other articles also mention Micro Vault but it seems to apply to
removable drives (and removing the password wipes the disk), but see if
there is a password utility installed for the Vaio. Looks like you
might have to call Sony to figure out how to reset the password (rather
than remove it which will remove your data, too). As when installing
another instance of Windows but you had used EFS under the old instance,
you need to have something of the security certificate, key, or password
used under that prior instance of Windows to unlock the other drives.
For EFS, you need to have exported the EFS certificate used to encrypt
the files so you could import it later. This eliminates someone from
stealing a computer, especially a laptop, and installing a fresh copy of
Windows or moving the drive to another Windows host and getting at the
data.

Your reinstall of Windows wiped out the password it had to allow it to
access the other drive. On some laptops, like IBM's Thinkpads, changing
the BIOS supervisor password can also render the password-protected hard
drives unusable until you also reset the password on them. The password
is encoded into the particular BIOS EEPROM(s) on a motherboard and used
against the hard drive(s) used with it, so if you replace the
motherboard or carry the hard drive to a different computer then you
cannot read that drive because the password stored on the hard drive
won't mate with the key, if any, in the other motherboard's BIOS. See
http://snipurl.com/AMI_pwdlock for an example of how one BIOS maker
implements password protection of hard drives. However, it sounds like
your Windows reinstall wiped some password that was recorded, probably a
hashed value in the registry, by some security software installed under
that old and now gone instance of Windows; i.e., it sounds like you had
some software security product managing the on-disk password rather than
using the hardware method (via BIOS). Presumably any software-managed
security product should provide a means of exporting the password to
other removable or remote media so you can later perform a restore.

Only Sony probably knows for sure how to unlock a password-protected
hard drive but you'll have to be ready to provide proof that it is your
computer.

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Vanguard,

I want to thank for continued interest and support. I will call Sony in the
morning, and with all of the information I believe I will be able to push the
rep beyond the standard script.

I will write again with the resolution, hopefully it will be good and it
will become a reference for all.

Thanks again!

"*Vanguard*" wrote:

> "Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote in news6814074-15B0-49C3-9F36-(E-Mail Removed):
> > Alright, I'll follow your suggestions. To run chkdsk/r do I go to
> > Start - Run and type chkdsk?
> >
> > Thanks Vanguard
> >
> > To follow up on your questions:
> > 1. Your right, from Bootable disk provided by WD for install and
> > diagnostics. It has a diagnostic tool and an option is to check the
> > drive. That is where the 220 error is derived.
> >
> > 2. No, I have a seperate WD1200 for Systems and it is all on C. The
> > drive in question is the storage or slave drive.
> >
> > 3. I have not run chkdsk/r
> >
> > 4. It is a recent problem. The drive has been operating smoothly for
> > about a year.
> >
> > 5. Drive format, I don't recall, whatever WD recommended during
> > install.
> >
> > 6. BIOS, can't find anything related to drive security.
> >
> > "*Vanguard*" wrote:
> >
> >> Oh, and if you can get into Windows (because it loads from a
> >> different drive), try doing a rescan of the hard drives in the Disk
> >> Management MMC applet (diskmgmt.msc, Action -> Rescan Disks).
> >>
> >> --
> >> __________________________________________________
> >> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
> >> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
> >> __________________________________________________
>
> ATA-5 provides password locking of a drive. You might have to call Sony
> tech support to find out from them how to unlock it. The idea is that
> if the hard drive gets removed from a stolen laptop that it remain
> unusable to the thief. It's a combo of BIOS support and password on the
> drive (probably in the MBR or elsewhere on track 0).
>
> When I went to their support page (http://www.iq.sony.com/). By
> searching on "PCVRX490TV", there was a link to http://snipurl.com/89kp.
> The other articles also mention Micro Vault but it seems to apply to
> removable drives (and removing the password wipes the disk), but see if
> there is a password utility installed for the Vaio. Looks like you
> might have to call Sony to figure out how to reset the password (rather
> than remove it which will remove your data, too). As when installing
> another instance of Windows but you had used EFS under the old instance,
> you need to have something of the security certificate, key, or password
> used under that prior instance of Windows to unlock the other drives.
> For EFS, you need to have exported the EFS certificate used to encrypt
> the files so you could import it later. This eliminates someone from
> stealing a computer, especially a laptop, and installing a fresh copy of
> Windows or moving the drive to another Windows host and getting at the
> data.
>
> Your reinstall of Windows wiped out the password it had to allow it to
> access the other drive. On some laptops, like IBM's Thinkpads, changing
> the BIOS supervisor password can also render the password-protected hard
> drives unusable until you also reset the password on them. The password
> is encoded into the particular BIOS EEPROM(s) on a motherboard and used
> against the hard drive(s) used with it, so if you replace the
> motherboard or carry the hard drive to a different computer then you
> cannot read that drive because the password stored on the hard drive
> won't mate with the key, if any, in the other motherboard's BIOS. See
> http://snipurl.com/AMI_pwdlock for an example of how one BIOS maker
> implements password protection of hard drives. However, it sounds like
> your Windows reinstall wiped some password that was recorded, probably a
> hashed value in the registry, by some security software installed under
> that old and now gone instance of Windows; i.e., it sounds like you had
> some software security product managing the on-disk password rather than
> using the hardware method (via BIOS). Presumably any software-managed
> security product should provide a means of exporting the password to
> other removable or remote media so you can later perform a restore.
>
> Only Sony probably knows for sure how to unlock a password-protected
> hard drive but you'll have to be ready to provide proof that it is your
> computer.
>
> --
> __________________________________________________
> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
> __________________________________________________
>
>

Vanguard,

Thanks for all your help.

2.5 hours on the phone w/Sony was a waste of time, except I was able to
incorporate suggestions from Sony, this board and other boards to identify my
problem.

One of suggestions the rep made was to set the storage drive to Master and
boot, which of course it wouldn't because there any system files on the
drive. Hours later, I recalled a suggestion to download a Windows 98 boot and
boot from the floppy drive. So, I set the drive to master inserted my
formatted disk and booted.

The result should be of little surprise, I'm miffed at the misleading error
WD diagnostic gave me.

Windows 98 has detected that Drive C does not contain a valid FAT or FAT32
partition.

Suprise, suprise. Sorry for misleading you, but I was only going on all of
the information provided to me WD and Sony.

Thanks gain for taking the time to help me.

"Alfred_63" wrote:

> Vanguard,
>
> I want to thank for continued interest and support. I will call Sony in the
> morning, and with all of the information I believe I will be able to push the
> rep beyond the standard script.
>
> I will write again with the resolution, hopefully it will be good and it
> will become a reference for all.
>
> Thanks again!
>
> "*Vanguard*" wrote:
>
> > "Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
> > wrote in news6814074-15B0-49C3-9F36-(E-Mail Removed):
> > > Alright, I'll follow your suggestions. To run chkdsk/r do I go to
> > > Start - Run and type chkdsk?
> > >
> > > Thanks Vanguard
> > >
> > > To follow up on your questions:
> > > 1. Your right, from Bootable disk provided by WD for install and
> > > diagnostics. It has a diagnostic tool and an option is to check the
> > > drive. That is where the 220 error is derived.
> > >
> > > 2. No, I have a seperate WD1200 for Systems and it is all on C. The
> > > drive in question is the storage or slave drive.
> > >
> > > 3. I have not run chkdsk/r
> > >
> > > 4. It is a recent problem. The drive has been operating smoothly for
> > > about a year.
> > >
> > > 5. Drive format, I don't recall, whatever WD recommended during
> > > install.
> > >
> > > 6. BIOS, can't find anything related to drive security.
> > >
> > > "*Vanguard*" wrote:
> > >
> > >> Oh, and if you can get into Windows (because it loads from a
> > >> different drive), try doing a rescan of the hard drives in the Disk
> > >> Management MMC applet (diskmgmt.msc, Action -> Rescan Disks).
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> __________________________________________________
> > >> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
> > >> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
> > >> __________________________________________________
> >
> > ATA-5 provides password locking of a drive. You might have to call Sony
> > tech support to find out from them how to unlock it. The idea is that
> > if the hard drive gets removed from a stolen laptop that it remain
> > unusable to the thief. It's a combo of BIOS support and password on the
> > drive (probably in the MBR or elsewhere on track 0).
> >
> > When I went to their support page (http://www.iq.sony.com/). By
> > searching on "PCVRX490TV", there was a link to http://snipurl.com/89kp.
> > The other articles also mention Micro Vault but it seems to apply to
> > removable drives (and removing the password wipes the disk), but see if
> > there is a password utility installed for the Vaio. Looks like you
> > might have to call Sony to figure out how to reset the password (rather
> > than remove it which will remove your data, too). As when installing
> > another instance of Windows but you had used EFS under the old instance,
> > you need to have something of the security certificate, key, or password
> > used under that prior instance of Windows to unlock the other drives.
> > For EFS, you need to have exported the EFS certificate used to encrypt
> > the files so you could import it later. This eliminates someone from
> > stealing a computer, especially a laptop, and installing a fresh copy of
> > Windows or moving the drive to another Windows host and getting at the
> > data.
> >
> > Your reinstall of Windows wiped out the password it had to allow it to
> > access the other drive. On some laptops, like IBM's Thinkpads, changing
> > the BIOS supervisor password can also render the password-protected hard
> > drives unusable until you also reset the password on them. The password
> > is encoded into the particular BIOS EEPROM(s) on a motherboard and used
> > against the hard drive(s) used with it, so if you replace the
> > motherboard or carry the hard drive to a different computer then you
> > cannot read that drive because the password stored on the hard drive
> > won't mate with the key, if any, in the other motherboard's BIOS. See
> > http://snipurl.com/AMI_pwdlock for an example of how one BIOS maker
> > implements password protection of hard drives. However, it sounds like
> > your Windows reinstall wiped some password that was recorded, probably a
> > hashed value in the registry, by some security software installed under
> > that old and now gone instance of Windows; i.e., it sounds like you had
> > some software security product managing the on-disk password rather than
> > using the hardware method (via BIOS). Presumably any software-managed
> > security product should provide a means of exporting the password to
> > other removable or remote media so you can later perform a restore.
> >
> > Only Sony probably knows for sure how to unlock a password-protected
> > hard drive but you'll have to be ready to provide proof that it is your
> > computer.
> >
> > --
> > __________________________________________________
> > *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
> > (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
> > __________________________________________________
> >
> >

"Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote in news:C1930F0F-4D79-4FE9-9050-(E-Mail Removed):
> Vanguard,
>
> Thanks for all your help.
>
> 2.5 hours on the phone w/Sony was a waste of time, except I was able
> to incorporate suggestions from Sony, this board and other boards to
> identify my problem.
>
> One of suggestions the rep made was to set the storage drive to
> Master and boot, which of course it wouldn't because there any system
> files on the drive. Hours later, I recalled a suggestion to download
> a Windows 98 boot and boot from the floppy drive. So, I set the drive
> to master inserted my formatted disk and booted.
>
> The result should be of little surprise, I'm miffed at the misleading
> error WD diagnostic gave me.
>
> Windows 98 has detected that Drive C does not contain a valid FAT or
> FAT32 partition.
>
> Suprise, suprise. Sorry for misleading you, but I was only going on
> all of the information provided to me WD and Sony.
>
> Thanks gain for taking the time to help me.
>
> "Alfred_63" wrote:
>
>> Vanguard,
>>
>> I want to thank for continued interest and support. I will call Sony
>> in the morning, and with all of the information I believe I will be
>> able to push the rep beyond the standard script.
>>
>> I will write again with the resolution, hopefully it will be good
>> and it will become a reference for all.
>>
>> Thanks again!
>>
>> "*Vanguard*" wrote:
>>
>>> "Alfred_63" <(E-Mail Removed)>
>>> wrote in news6814074-15B0-49C3-9F36-(E-Mail Removed):
>>>> Alright, I'll follow your suggestions. To run chkdsk/r do I go to
>>>> Start - Run and type chkdsk?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Vanguard
>>>>
>>>> To follow up on your questions:
>>>> 1. Your right, from Bootable disk provided by WD for install and
>>>> diagnostics. It has a diagnostic tool and an option is to check the
>>>> drive. That is where the 220 error is derived.
>>>>
>>>> 2. No, I have a seperate WD1200 for Systems and it is all on C. The
>>>> drive in question is the storage or slave drive.
>>>>
>>>> 3. I have not run chkdsk/r
>>>>
>>>> 4. It is a recent problem. The drive has been operating smoothly
>>>> for about a year.
>>>>
>>>> 5. Drive format, I don't recall, whatever WD recommended during
>>>> install.
>>>>
>>>> 6. BIOS, can't find anything related to drive security.
>>>>
>>>> "*Vanguard*" wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Oh, and if you can get into Windows (because it loads from a
>>>>> different drive), try doing a rescan of the hard drives in the
>>>>> Disk Management MMC applet (diskmgmt.msc, Action -> Rescan Disks).
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> __________________________________________________
>>>>> *** Post replies to newsgroup. Share with others.
>>>>> (E-mail: domain = ".com", add "=NEWS=" to Subject)
>>>>> __________________________________________________
>>>
>>> ATA-5 provides password locking of a drive. You might have to call
>>> Sony tech support to find out from them how to unlock it. The idea
>>> is that if the hard drive gets removed from a stolen laptop that it
>>> remain unusable to the thief. It's a combo of BIOS support and
>>> password on the drive (probably in the MBR or elsewhere on track 0).
>>>
>>> When I went to their support page (http://www.iq.sony.com/). By
>>> searching on "PCVRX490TV", there was a link to
>>> http://snipurl.com/89kp. The other articles also mention Micro
>>> Vault but it seems to apply to removable drives (and removing the
>>> password wipes the disk), but see if there is a password utility
>>> installed for the Vaio. Looks like you might have to call Sony to
>>> figure out how to reset the password (rather than remove it which
>>> will remove your data, too). As when installing another instance
>>> of Windows but you had used EFS under the old instance, you need to
>>> have something of the security certificate, key, or password used
>>> under that prior instance of Windows to unlock the other drives.
>>> For EFS, you need to have exported the EFS certificate used to
>>> encrypt the files so you could import it later. This eliminates
>>> someone from stealing a computer, especially a laptop, and
>>> installing a fresh copy of Windows or moving the drive to another
>>> Windows host and getting at the data.
>>>
>>> Your reinstall of Windows wiped out the password it had to allow it
>>> to access the other drive. On some laptops, like IBM's Thinkpads,
>>> changing the BIOS supervisor password can also render the
>>> password-protected hard drives unusable until you also reset the
>>> password on them. The password is encoded into the particular BIOS
>>> EEPROM(s) on a motherboard and used against the hard drive(s) used
>>> with it, so if you replace the motherboard or carry the hard drive
>>> to a different computer then you cannot read that drive because the
>>> password stored on the hard drive won't mate with the key, if any,
>>> in the other motherboard's BIOS. See
>>> http://snipurl.com/AMI_pwdlock for an example of how one BIOS maker
>>> implements password protection of hard drives. However, it sounds
>>> like your Windows reinstall wiped some password that was recorded,
>>> probably a hashed value in the registry, by some security software
>>> installed under that old and now gone instance of Windows; i.e., it
>>> sounds like you had some software security product managing the
>>> on-disk password rather than using the hardware method (via BIOS).
>>> Presumably any software-managed security product should provide a
>>> means of exporting the password to other removable or remote media
>>> so you can later perform a restore.
>>>
>>> Only Sony probably knows for sure how to unlock a password-protected
>>> hard drive but you'll have to be ready to provide proof that it is
>>> your computer.
>>>
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Other than a virus changing the partition table or boot sector of a
partition, did you at any time delete the partition and then recreate it
exactly where it was thinking that the recreate would leave you with a
partition just like before? You can delete a partition and then
recreate it just where it was before and rescue the partition but the
partition type won't be known and you need to use a disk editor or
partition table editor that will let you set the partition type. If the
boot sector got corrupted or infected then you could use FIXMBR and
FIXBOOT to correct the boot sector. However, I don't think the latter
was your case since this was the second hard drive (so its MBR doesn't
get used) and not used for booting any OS.

Did 'chkdsk D: /r' find any problems? It will correct problems in the
file system but it won't fix the partition type recorded in the
partition table. There are utilities around to do that for you to
rescue partitions, or you could try using a partition table editor
(Powerquest has one) to set the partition type. I had to do that after
restoring the wrong backed up MBR.


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