hp ssd s700 shows as locked in gpart even though i never locked it... i cannot delete partitions

[jamesmcm]

i wanted to reinstall os because it was not booting

[DGroves]

 If the HDD has been locked by >HP Drive Lock utility<, then there is no way to unlock it unless you know the password.

A DriveLock password can only be deleted by disabling DriveLock protection from the drive.

There is no recovery if a master DriveLock password is forgotten.

[jamesmcm]

i think gpart is showing it as locked because it thinks it is in use....

i never locked it...

strange that i can copy files to the drive but they are not usable from there..

it was my boot drive  and i can see all the files on it but it will not boot or let me format it 

it passes ssd tests as healthy etc... lol

[DGroves]

perhaps the linux OS itself is borked,....try attaching the drive to a windows OS and see if it allows formatting it or deleting existing partitions

[jamesmcm]

ty for your reply,

i have tried windows 7 and 10 and command prompt diskpart, also have a self booting dvd with mini xp and a slew of linux based tools... nothing seems to be able to change anything.  is there a virus or ransomware out there that can do this to a drive?