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Ichnafi's avatar
Ichnafi
Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
Mar 26, 2018

Big-IP i4000 bricked after downgrade from 13.1 to 12.1. Harddrive is locked by ATA password

Hi all,

 

after booting the 12.1 partition out of a 13.1 test installation, my machine is bricked. Being connected via console, the device keeps asking for a Hard Drive Password which i don't know. Looks to me like the drive is locked by the ATA password function. I can't even perform a disk erase and/or clean installation like mentioned here, because the drive can not be accessed.

 

Any idea how I can get that thing back to work on my own, or do I need to send it in?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

application delivery
BIG-IP
LTM

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  • Ichnafi's avatar
    Ichnafi
    Icon for Cirrostratus rankCirrostratus
    Mar 29, 2018

    I've got it running again. Support says that

     

    RMA process is rejected in those cases due to the issue was caused by an external factor

     

    I have no idea in what way a reboot to another software using the GUI is a issue caused by external factor.

     

    I solved my problem by guessing the password. So for all of you who run into the same problem, the ultra secure password with

     

    the main goal [to] protect the hard drive, even, for internal administrator

     

    is: f5

     

    After that I was able to wipe the disk with the integrated disk-wipe utility (press "e" on startup) and perform a clean install from external DVD-Drive.