secure erase drive errors

[Chris Murphy]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 8:16 PM, Konstantin Svist <fry.kun at gmail.com> wrote:

> If you're wiping mostly for privacy and there are few dead sectors,
> you're probably fine. If you have very sensitive data and/or many bad
> sectors, you need to take extra measures to destroy the data.

ATA Enhanced Security Erase function should do that. This is an
internal erase, so it erases reserve areas that do not have LBAs
assigned, whereas any user space utility cannot erase such sectors. So
either pay to have it mulched, or use hdparm to issue the enhanced
secure erase command. If it's a newer drive supporting encryption,
then crypto erase is very fast and also effectively obliterates data
in all areas, since even if you aren't using the encryption feature to
lock the drive, these drives always encrypt (but by default are always
unlocked). The crypto erase function simply wipes the DEK in favor of
a new one.


-- 
Chris Murphy