On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 9:29 AM, Linuxguy123 <linuxguy123(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sat, 2010-10-09 at 02:27 -0600, Linuxguy123 wrote:
>
> >From man hdparm:
>
> --security-erase PWD
> Erase (locked) drive, using password PWD (DANGEROUS).
> Password is given as an ASCII string and is padded
> with NULs to reach 32 bytes. Use the special password
> NULL to represent an empty password. The applicable
> drive password is selected with the --user-master switch.
> No other flags are permitted on the command line
> with this one. THIS FEATURE IS EXPERIMENTAL AND NOT WELL
> TESTED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
>
>
> In actual use:
>
> # hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sdd
> security_password=""
>
> /dev/sdd:
> Issuing SECURITY_ERASE command, password="", user=master
> ERASE_PREPARE: Invalid exchange
>
> Why ????
I have this drive connected via a USB adapter. Would that cause this
problem ?
Yes in all probability - I have found that this does not work via such
adapters. Best bet - either boot a distro like parted.magic so you
can work on the internal drive when it is not in use, or remove the
drive from the machine and put it in a different machine where you can
run a live distro to execute the hdparm commands - note that some
BIOSes freeze out access to the Secure Erase commands (presumably so
viruses can't erase your drive!) - once you know there is a machine
where you can do this it is easy - generally older machines don't have
a restriction.
--
mike c