Unlock Maxtor HDD

From NLTiVo

Problem

"TiVo 'lock' the drives so they are useless in a normal PC. This was also to stop 'hackers' from accessing the drive outside of TiVo. As you can tell, it didn't really work too well."

If your TiVo comes with a Maxtor drive or if you are using a new Quantum or Maxtor (some newer Maxtors have Quantum firmware and components) hard drive in your planned upgrade, some TiVo's may lock-up the drive.

To unlock the drive you require a utility to unlock this drive if it is ever placed into the TiVo for testing/use and then removed later for further upgrading steps. If you run into a locked drive (total size reports as 9-10MB) you should read on.

Solution

There are various utilities available for unlocking the TiVo drive - each one is specific to the type of drive so make sure you use the correct one. Files to unlock a drive can be found here.

There are basically two utilities for Maxtor/Quantum drives, qunlock (7k) and diskutil. Of the two, diskutil is described as "a safer alternative to qunlock" because it verifies that the drive is indeed locked before attempting to unlock it. The danger is that with the newer (Maxtor) drives, attempting to disable the lock when it's not already active engages it permanently - rendering the disk useless. This information has been sourced from this thread.

The unlock tool of choice should be copied to a dos boot floppy. Boot floppies can be downloaded here, or you can make your own:

Boot floppy on Windows older than 2000

To create a dos boot disk, place a blank disk in your floppy then exit windows to an msdos prompt and type

sys a:

at the c:\ prompt (Windows ME users should go to Control Panel-->add/remove programs-->Startup Disk to create the dos boot disk Return to Windows).

Copy the unlock program to your new dos boot floppy.

Boot floppy on Windows 2000 and up

Depending upon your version of Win2000/NT/XP, you may be able to create a DOS boot disk: Place a blank floppy disk in the drive A. Select Start, choose Run and type:

cmd

then choose OK or press enter. This will give you a virtual ms-dos machine (VDM). Now type:

FORMAT A: /S

Use File Manager or VDM to copy command.com from the c:\dos directory to the floppy disk. Also copy the unlock program to the floppy disk. The floppy disk should now be able to boot as expected in order to run the unlock program.

Diskutil

Note: Diskutil is a safer alternative to Qunlock, since this tool checks the disk whether it is locked or not, thereby protecting it from becoming damaged permanently. No warranties or guarantees though - If you fry your drive you're on your own!

Boot the system from the dos boot floppy with the locked harddrive attached.

The disk-util program accepts four different commands:

1. DiskUtil/Info
   
   Displays brief information about each IDE disk on your PC.
   
   
2. DiskUtil/TempUnlock DriveNo.
   
   Unlocks a TiVo disk in the same way that a TiVo does during startup. The drive stays unlocked until power cycled or hard re-set.
   
   
3. DiskUtil/PermUnlock DriveNo.
   
   Unlocks the disk so that, after a power cycle, it stays unlocked until replaced in a TiVo. I'm fairly sure this is the same method that qunlock uses. Unlike qunlock, the program checks if the drive is not already permanently unlocked before executing the command. This should avoid the problems with Maxtor drives when qunlock is run multiple times.
   
   
4. DiskUtil/Lock DriveNo.
   
   Included for completeness. Locks the drive using the same keys as a Tivo. Drive will then respond to /TempUnlock and /PermUnlock as if it had just been removed from a TiVo.

Qunlock

Note: Make sure the harddrive is in a locked state (total size reports as 9-10MB) before running this tool. The danger is that with the newer (Maxtor) drives, attempting to disable the lock when it's not already active engages it permanently - rendering the disk useless. Use the tool at your own risk!

Boot the system from the dos boot floppy with the locked harddrive attached and run qunlock.exe to unlock the drive. Qunlock knows the following switches:

qunlock 0 - unlock primary master
qunlock 1 - unlock primary slave
qunlock 2 - unlock secondary master
qunlock 3 - unlock secondary slave

Disable harddisk locking on TiVo

To avoid possible issues with Maxtor harddisks, it might be a good idea to disable the disk locking function in the tivo's boot prom. This must be done via the boot menu on the TiVo.

See this howto on how to access the boot-menu.

once in the boot menu:

5 - Toggle auto disk locking 

8 - Save changes to configuration

Saving the changes takes a few seconds, so be sure to wait for the prompt to return. Then reboot your TiVo.

At this point, with the disk locking function disabled, it should be "safe" to attach your Maxtor disk.