HOW TO: Remove HPA with HDAT2 from USB Flash Drive


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HOW TO: Remove HPA with HDAT2 from USB Flash Drive

 

I've decided to write this quick HOW-TO guide because I didn't find one myself, and I spent 3+ hours trying to figure out a way to do this.

 

This guide is handy if you have a HPA issue on one or more of your hard drives, and can't use the "hdparm" command. This is also particularly useful if you do NOT have a CD/DVD drive in your unRAID server, and you don't have the luxury/want to remove your hard drives to remove your HPA.

 

My problem: I had HPA on a drive, without a CD/DVD drive in my server (or one lying around), and no Windows desktop to put the HPA drive in. I normally use a Mac and fortunately I had access to a laptop running Windows 7.

 

NOTE: If you have HPA, PLEASE try the hdparm command first. Read the articles in the Wiki first dealing with HPA and hdparm.

http://lime-technology.com/wiki/index.php?title=UnRAID_Topical_Index

 

I've attached a .zip containing the files needed to perform this. This method uses the HDAT2 program to remove the HPA and get your drive back to it's intended size. Essentially we will create a bootable USB Flash Drive using simple DOS tools and then running HDAT2 from this.

 

You need: A USB Flash drive, my files included below.

 

Step 1: Download the files here and unzip the folder. The folder contains three items, a "hpflash1" utility, win98boot folder (DOS), and HDAT2 (the DOS executable that removes the HPA)

 

Files: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25609851/USB_HPA_Bootable.zip

 

Step 2: Open the "hpflash1" folder, and install the utility. It's a program written by HP that will create a bootable USB flash drive, written to help flash BIOS updates, etc.

 

Step 3: Plug in your USB Flash Drive

 

Step 4: Open the newly installed "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. (On Windows 7, you'll have to run this as an administrator!)

The tool looks like this:

usb1.png

 

Step 5: Make sure your USB Flash drive that you've inserted is chosen from the drop down box on the utility. THIS WILL FORMAT YOUR USB FLASH DRIVE. Make sure all of your important things are off of it. Next choose "Quick Format" and "Create a DOS Startup Disk"

 

Step 6: Under Create a DOS Startup Disk, choose "using DOS system files located at:" and then click the "..." next to it. Point this to the "win98boot" folder we unzipped from the attached files.

 

Step 7: Review you've chosen everything I previously listed. Then hit Start.

 

Step 8: When complete, your DOS bootable USB Flash drive should be mounted. Lastly, drag over the HDAT2 file you unzipped earlier to the flash drive.

 

Now you're ready to use this in your server!

 

My recommended steps:

Activate a clean power-down.

Remove your USB Flash drive containing unRAID!!!

Insert DOS bootable USB flash drive

Restart your server, and make sure under your BIOS it's set to boot off of your USB drive still. If it is, your flash drive will boot into MS-DOS!

 

If you arrive at the screen "C:/", you've done everything correctly! Type HDAT2 and hit enter.

 

This will now load HDAT2 and you can follow the tutorial written by kin0kin to remove HPA with HDAT2 here:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6806.msg66465#msg66465

 

I hope this write-up will help someone else!

 

P.S. I posted the files to my Dropbox as a public download. I'm not sure of any limits on these files, but please let me know if they're down. You can sign-up for your own Dropbox here: http://db.tt/cHFZPtR (shameless Dropbox referral link!)

 

 

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