hard drive problem

[Valeri Galtsev]

On Wed, June 24, 2015 1:00 pm, jd1008 wrote:
>
>
> On 06/24/2015 09:41 AM, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>> On Wed, June 24, 2015 10:36 am, kpneal at pobox.com wrote:
>>> On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 08:57:20AM -0500, Brandon J. Wandersee wrote:
>>>> jd1008 writes:
>>>>
>>>>> does anyone have a way to unlock the master pword in
>>>>> a recent WD 2TB  2.5" drive?
>>>> "Master pword?" Is this a firmware-level encrypted drive? If so, no. A
>>>> "reset" feature would defeat the purpose of having encryption in the
>>>> first place. If the drive is self-encrypting you don't know the
>>>> password, the drive's a brick.
>>> My guess is that you can tell the drive to use a new password, but the
>>> contents of the drive are lost. That's assuming a firmware-level
>>> encryption.
>>>
>>> BTW, are there really 2TB _2.5"_ drives on the market?
>> It may be an enclosure with two 1TB 2.5" drives either concatenated, or
>> RAID0 thus presenting itself as 2 TB. Just a wild guess.
>>
>> Valeri
> This one is actually a 4 platter drive, thus rather thick (15mm).
> Goodby to 7.5mm 2.5" drives. Areal density has not reached the
> quantum level yet :)

Cool note! With magnetic domains in will not be quantum level though: it
will be at least about a hundred of individual atoms involved into each
individual magnetic domain. Bu I really like your comment!

Oh, boy, I seemed to overestimate macroscopicity of physics here (IBM
managed it on 12 atoms...):

http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smarter_computing/article/atomic_scale_memory.html

> But from the technologists I know who are
> and have worked at HD companies, I hear that mechanical drives
> are totally on the way out as the the RAM and FLASH electronics
> get every tinier and faster, and much more reliable and long lasting.
>

Holography, one might think, could be most dense way of packing
information (of what we know today).

Thanks for your brilliant comment! It made my day!

Valeri

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Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
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