HDAT2 forum

Hi, I am trying to set a HPA of a hard disk using HDAT2. I have three old hard disk for testing. Using the set max command in HDAT2, it seems that I changed the max address of the hard disk successfully. (The program claimed success on the operation and I tried quit the program and enter again and the detected capacity is what I set it is). However, after reboot the machine, the capacity restored to its original size... (the option I choose is hard change)
Anyone knows the solution please help me...
I tried all the possible jumper position of the hard disk. The disk I used for testing is "IBM DHEA-34331 E182115 S". The naive capacity is 10.11 GB.
Another Seagate hard disk (U8 Model: ST38410A, Capacity: 8.4GB) have the same problem.
Also there is another hard disk( Also IBM hard disk) that HDAT2 have no menu for setting max. ( I guess it's too old, its capacity is only 4.5 GB). However, using another tool called mhdd I successfully created HPA on this hard disk. MHDD have the same problem creating the HPA on the other two hard disks.
The attached please find the debug info and detect info before and after the set max operation.

Hi,

this is hard to say what is wrong, but I think these old hard disks are
from older ATA specification and the specification for HPA is a little bit poor...
Normally the size cutting should stay permanent,
maybe the restoring to native size is due BIOS settings, I don't know.
If my program doesn't show SET MAX menu, it could be that this HPA feature
is not installed and in this case this menu is missing.

Could you send me BIX debug file of IBM hard disk where the SET MAX menu is missing?

Thanks for your help!
The attached please find the debug info for the old IBM 4GB disk.
I wrote a program and found that the 80th word returned by IDENTIFY DEVICE command is 0x000e, which, according to ATA standard, means that this old disk doesn't even support ATA-4 standard. However, I can successfully send the READ NATIVE MAX and SET MAX command to the driver and the output is OK! I thought that HPA was introduced in ATA-4 standard... And after I set a smaller size, the disk did appear smaller! However, I was unable to set a size which is bigger than the current size, that is I can't set the disk to its maximum size by using READ NATIVE MAX and SET MAX.
Also I found that using only these two command doesn't change the size of a newer disk (Hitachi HDS721680PLA380 80GB), though these command claimed success. In HDAT2, the program hangs for about 5 seconds when I choose this disk and then the program says that it couldn't read the IDENTIFY DEVICE info. Also I was unable to save a debug info file of this disk... This disk supports ATA-7 standard, 48 bit addressing and DCO. ( I found this by reading the output of IDENTIFY DEVICE)
I've been reading ATA standard these days and I have a few questions. After SET MAX, SET MAX PASSWORD, SET MAX LOCK and then SET MAX FROZEN, the disk should be in freeze lock status. Does it mean that once in this stage, there is no way to go back? If I set the HPA by using SET MAX and then unset it by using SET MAX to max address. Can I set the HPA by using SET MAX EX now? What about the other way around?

Yes, after SET MAX FROZEN command is the drive in frozen state and
all the SET MAX commands are disabled until the next power cycle
or hardware reset (the same is for the SECURITY FREEZE LOCK command).
So, the way to go back is power-off or HW reset (see ATA standards).

If hard disk doesn't supports HPA feature (officially)
and you send SET MAX command, then you cannot trust to the results
of this 'unsupported' command. It could be sometimes dangerous,
because the command is either not correctly defined or
sed by vendor for testing.
For this reason the menu used in HDAT2 is always created according
to supported feature sets of selected drive.

>If I set the HPA by using SET MAX and then unset
>it by using SET MAX to max address. Can I set the HPA by using SET MAX EX now?
No, because the SET MAX (and SET MAX EXT command) in hard setting
mode you can issue only one times per power cycle.

>What about the other way around?
Only using soft setting mode or power-off after every SET MAX command.

Thanks for the great help, cbl~~
I'm a little bit confused with the term "power cycle". How can I go to the next power cycle? Reboot the machine? Unplug the power cable of the hard disk? Or is there a hidden button that I have to push on the hd?

"power cycle" means turn power off of PC (and hard disk too).
There is no hidden button ))