Alright, I received an HDD from my father's friend (it's a Hitachi Deskstar HDS722525VLAT80, needless to say), and it is formatted in FATX, which is the Xbox format (but you probably knew that). I do not have an Xbox, and my dad's friend does not live nearby. I need to format this drive, but I have no way of unlocking it or finding out the password. Also, since I haven't an Xbox, all the methods I've been able to find prove to be impossible (they all require a password or an Xbox).

If it's possible to get this drive formatted so I can use it in my PC, that would be awesome.

Oh, I forgot to add: when I plug the HDD into my computer, Windows will not boot at all. The CD that came with the HDD cannot read it to format and set up when I boot to the CD.
I have the jumper settings right and everything.

Hi Rodents,

Welcome to The site,
I'm not really up on Xbox etc formats but one of our techs should be able to help you soon.

Heya Rodent.

Welcome to PCHF,


Oddly enough, I've had this same problem. My friends Xbox died, so we attempted to retrieve the harddrive. We tried to mess with everything, but we weren't so successful. Hah! No but really, there might be a way to change it, I'm not all that smart when it comes to the complicated stuff. Good luck

Hitachi said they'll replace it if it's under warranty, but I won't be able to get the HDD until tomorrow (I'm sleeping over at my grandparents' house and I don't have to be in school until 11:45 for midterms and it's less of a walking distance from here). It says 2005 on the HDD, so I doubt it's under warranty.

Hey Guys,

@Rodents, is this the drive with the RMA?

If not, have you tried setting the drive to master, taking out the other drive, so as not to accidentally reformat it, and boot up using the Ultimate Boot CD? With this you could create a virtual OS environment, which should allow you access to wipe the HDD using the FDISK utility.

You will need to use the Full Version, and create a bootable CD, but this may give you the access that you need to the drive, without having to actually get the drive to boot up.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

Yes, this is the drive with the RMA. I'll try that tomorrow, but unfortunately I don't think that will work, as my drive is locked tight.

It didn't work, but could you tell me what I should have run on it? I might have run the wrong things.