Seagate Pocketwarrior w hardware based full disk encryption

Oh, I forgot to mention: I think the drive is using AES encryption technology. Here is the drive details in lshw:

     *-scsi
          physical id: 2
          bus info: usb@8:5
          logical name: scsi11
          capabilities: emulated scsi-host
          configuration: driver=usb-storage
        *-disk
             description: SCSI Disk
             product: PocketWarrior
             vendor: Seagate
             physical id: 0.0.0
             bus info: scsi@11:0.0.0
             logical name: /dev/sdb
             version: 0008
             serial: 5SX00F6N
             configuration: ansiversion=4

And here is my dmesg log after connecting the drive:

[ 3187.516016] usb 8-5: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
[ 3187.649269] usb 8-5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[ 3187.649739] scsi12 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
[ 3187.652173] usb-storage: device found at 8
[ 3187.652178] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[ 3192.652201] usb-storage: device scan complete
[ 3192.741330] scsi 12:0:0:0: Direct-Access Seagate PocketWarrior 0008 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[ 3192.894935] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
[ 3192.897293] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[ 3192.897298] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 1c 00 00 00
[ 3192.897301] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 3192.902128] sd 12:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[ 3192.902794] sd 12:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0

Oh, I also found some more data (some of the serial - drive identification data has been changed to wildcards):
$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:

ATA device, with non-removable media
 Model Number: ST9320322AS
 Serial Number: 5SX00***
 Firmware Revision: 0303
 Transport: Serial
Standards:
 Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0029)
 Supported: 8 7 6 5
 Likely used: 8
Configuration:
 Logical max current
 cylinders 16383 16383
 heads 16 16
 sectors/track 63 63
 --
 CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
 LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455
 LBA48 user addressable sectors: 625142448
 device size with M = 1024*1024: 305245 MBytes
 device size with M = 1000*1000: 320072 MBytes (320 GB)
Capabilities:
 LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
 Queue depth: 32
 Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
 R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 1 Current = ?
 Advanced power management level: 128
 Recommended acoustic management value: 254, current value: 0
 DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
      Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
 PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
      Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
 Enabled Supported:
    * SMART feature set
      Security Mode feature set
    * Power Management feature set
    * Write cache
    * Look-ahead
    * WRITE_BUFFER command
    * READ_BUFFER command
      DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
    * Advanced Power Management feature set
    * 48-bit Address feature set
    * Device Configuration Overlay feature set
    * Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
    * FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
    * SMART error logging
    * SMART self-test
    * General Purpose Logging feature set
    * WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
    * WRITE_DMA_QUEUED_FUA_EXT
    * 64-bit World wide name
    * IDLE_IMMEDIATE with UNLOAD
    * Write-Read-Verify feature set
    * WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
    * {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
    * SATA-I signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
    * Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
    * Phy event counters
      DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
      Device-initiated interface power management
    * Software settings preservation
    * SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
    * SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
    * SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
    * SCT Features Control (AC4)
    * SCT Data Tables (AC5)
      unknown 206[12] (vendor specific)
Security:
 Master password revision code = 65534
  supported
 not enabled
 not locked
 not frozen
 not expired: security count
  supported: enhanced erase
 2min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5000c50026d4b**
 NAA : 5
 IEEE OUI : c50
 Unique ID : 0**d4b**
Checksum: correct

if you want to be able to use it in ubuntu, you'll need to see if theres a way to disable that hardware based encryption. maybe a setting in the firmware. then partition (format) the drive and you should be able to use it in ubuntu.

I would prefer to be able to keep the encryption. It is a neat feature of the drive (full disk encryption without loss of speed).
Even if I wanted to do that, I don't think it is possible. There is no support site as such for this drive, since as I mentioned above it is not for sale outside Seagate.

to use the encryption, you would have to get seagate to make a linux compatible software for the drive. else it wont work. or if you get seagate to provide us with the source code for the windows software, we could make a linux version :)

Hey guys,

So have u all find out the way to disable the hardware based encryption? BTW, I also got a seagate Pocket Warrior which I wish to format it to FAT32.

If u guys have any solutions, can u email me the solution pls. Help is greatly appreciated!

With Regards....

HI Allan,

have you find the solution to make this work without the segate manager software? I tried to use it as standard USB plug and play storage device on my locked down laptop and encountered the same problem as you.

Hope to hear from you soon on possible solution.

Regards

Hi, sorry to say I have not found any solution to the problem yet.

Was hoping the good people here would be able to help but nothing yet so far :(

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Okay for whoever surfs in here for an answer from Google, I have only found one acceptable solution:

Whenever I want to use the drive, I start my Windows XP through VirtualBox (NOT OSE) and unlock the drive by typing in the password in Windows XP. Now that the drive is unlocked, you can either turn off virtual Windows or just disallow access to USB. Since the disk now is unlocked you have access to it from Ubuntu.

Far from a great solution but at least I have access to the drive without too much work.

My Seagate pocket warrior HD stop functioning recently .
Whenever I plug in , it detect the new hardware and I check that it is detect in the device manager under diskdrive but i never appear as a drive eg D: or E:
Check disk managment but also did not find the HD .
It never load and never prompt for me to unlock the drive anymore therefore I cannot access it .
Could anyone could help or send me the pocket warrior launcher manager to my email at <email address hidden>