SSD is locked/frozen by the BIOS

Hello all,

Earlier on I burned a copy of the Parted Magic ISO to a blank DVD in a vain attempt to follow the instructions set out in a Point and Click method for a Secure Erase of my Vertex 2, to at least try and restore it to an out of box condition.

BUT - there's one snag. According to the Parted Magic ISO, the Vertex 2 is in a frozen state initiated by the BIOS as a protection against viruses and trojans masquerading as boot software that can potentially change settings on the drive, harming it.

What I need is a method to effectively bypass the security measures in the BIOS, to Secure Erase my SSD so I can have a clean slate to install a new copy of Windows 7 on. I have been searching, and it appears that the only method to get past this is by hot plugging - essentially taking the drive's power supply and then reconnecting it five seconds or so later to get past the BIOS lock. Obviously, with a laptop, this isn't really all that possible is it, since the drives power connector and SATA connector are pretty much joined together. It could be done, but in might be a little... awkward.

TL;DR - SSD is locked by BIOS, need a method to bypass it for a Secure Erase.

Also, one more thing - I don't need anyone telling me about how my 6GB of RAM is insufficient for an SSD, because I could care less. My usage patterns don't require 8GB or more of RAM usually, and as for SSD degredation - do you really think I will be using this very same system as my primary in ten years?

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

 

I also used PartedMagic for SE.
With an ASUS G71Gx I had only to restore the default values in BIOS to get the "not frozen" state.
This didn't work anymore with my HP 8530w. I had to remove my SSD from the internal HDD bay, temporarily put it in a eSATA enclosure and connect it via an eSATA port, do the SE with PartedMagic and then reinstall it again in the notebook.
Try Ubuntu 10.10. With Ubuntu it is no longer necessary. You have to "Suspend" and then "Resume" to get the "not frozen" state.
Good luck.

 

Well i also use Parted Magic for my vertex 2. First i couldnt secure erase it because it told me it is frozen by the bios. There is a solution. My solution for my G73 was to install my ssd in the 2nd hdd bay. The 2nd bay isnt bios secured.

I hope u have a 2nd hdd bay.

Best regards

Zodrac

edit: i c u also have a g73 ^^

 

or just take it out and use a usb/sata/pata adapter cable.

 

I found an easier solution. Simply switch the SATA controller mode to IDE instead of AHCI in the BIOS. This appears to remove the lock on the drive so it can be erased without any problems.

Thanks anyway, people.

 

or boot into Parted magic with the SSD in the 1st drive bay....then unplug the SSD for 1 minute....then plug it back in and you will be good. I actually called up corsair to see what the problem was and that's what they told me to do. That way you wont need to go into the Bios and change anything (besides boot order) and you wont need a 2nd drive bay or external SATA adapter cable. Hopefully this helps!