ATA Secure Erase for Solid State and Hard Disk Drives extension

[coreplayer2]

Every hard drive (built within the last ten years) has secure erase built-in with compliance of the ATA specification. 

All it takes is activation. This script by Patrick Verner and Jason Vasquez from Parted Magic which is distributed as free and open source software does just that, with the help of hdparm and one or two other dependencies.  The script will totally secure erase user data from each selected drive, so use at your own risk. Please make a backup.

see wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parted_Magic
and http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

It's primary use is secure deletion of data from any hard disk drive, lately however has become popular in restoring the performance of Solid State drives.  Again, please make a backup. once issued the command will permanently erase all data.

An extension has been submitted, I tried to post the code however it apparently exceeds the 20000 character limit..!!

Code: [Select]

??

Enjoy, but please make a backup, any drive cleaned using this method will irretrievably loose it's data.  have I said this enough yet?


having said that, I use this method frequently.  Now it's available to tc.

[genec]

Every hard drive (built within the last ten years) has secure erase built-in with compliance of the ATA specification. 

It's also good to note that _many_ PATA/SATA controllers (especially onboard controllers) block this command.  Think about what if a piece of malware (especially an MBR virus) attempted to execute this command.

[coreplayer2]

Noted; I used to believe this was a limiting factor, however as I understand it where a block is implemented it is only temporary and designed to be overridden locally, otherwise the controller would not be in compliance with the ATA spec, ie In practice the sleep mode and password assumes the operator is present which effectively allows the command to pass. 

It's a recommended procedure now by at least two SSD manufacturers to restore factory fresh state and honestly I don't remember a time where this script has failed on any motherboard (though the nvidia/scsi interface may be an issue but that's a rare case).  I have yet to find a motherboard where this script is blocked.  aiui the script has been in use successfully for at least the last couple of years.  I have many SSD's on various systems and utilize this script regularly via various chipsets without issue.

have a HDD that needs cleaning? or an SSD which needs a nand refresh? try it,  just be sure to carefully select the right drive from the menu.  Once the command has been issued there is no turning back afaik.

So thought I'd at least make it available to tc being that the script is so reliable.

[genec]

Once the command has been issued there is no turning back afaik.

If I recall correctly, it will even resume the command after a power cycle and the disk is unusable until complete.