What I have tried so far:
- Connect SATA/usb adapter but windows couldn't display the drive.
- Booting with Ubuntu live but couldn't mount the HDD within SATA/usb adapter.
- Direct plug the HDD in another laptop and try to boot with bootable USB but the HDD password prompt always pops up first.
2 Answers
If the harddisk is protected with the ATA security feature, you need to issue special ATA commands to erase it. Your USB-SATA bridge must pass through these commands, otherwise it won't work.
This article describes how to do a Secure Erase, under the condition you can set the master password (or know the master password).
If you don't know the exact ATA security status of the drive, smartctl -g security /dev/sda etc. will show it.
I don't know how to proceed if you've lost the password and can't set a master password.
First remove all partitions, then create a partition the OS you're going to use the drive in understands (this 2nd step can be done from the OS itself).
Once you create the partition, it should be possible to format the drive.
If you cannot remove partitions, use a live cd, such as Hiren's Boot CD which has partition managers that should do it.
