IDE Drive won't format, Write Protected? Help

[axelrose]

I am using an Intel based Quad-core q9400 system, motherboard is ga-ep45-ud3p gigabyte.
OS is Vista Home Premium 64 bit

My main boot drive is a 320GB SATA 2 drive and works perfectly.

I decided to install an older IDE drive for backups etc, it is configured as master on the IDE channel and doesn't not conflict upon reboots or anything else..

Anyway, I cannot Format this IDE drive, it says it is write protected. I've checked the bios and jumpers and can't imagine what is preventing me from formating this drive.
It's a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L080P0 80GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive

Can one of you help?

[Nenu]

Sounds like an old XBox drive.
You can permanently unlock it using some hacking software and the XBox it came from.
The XBox is used to unlock the drive, then maintaining power to the drive, it is plugged into a PC which is booted with the unlocked drive attached.
The lock can then be disabled from the PC.

[Blazestorm]

Old xbox's didn't have 80GB drives...

[thebeephaha]

Vista does this to my external drives every now and then.

I just wipe them on another machine and I'm all good.

[mnewxcv]

yeah the old xbox had an 8gig hdd, not 80

[Nenu]

heh yeah.
Clearly its not from an XBox but it must be from something that used locked drives (unless its as stated in post #4)
The same technique I mentioned earlier may work if its powered up attached to the original device.