On 10/02/2018 07:19 PM, JBI wrote:
On 10/02/2018 06:56 PM, JBI wrote:
On 10/02/2018 06:23 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 2 Oct 2018 16:51:32 -0400, JBI wrote:
On 10/02/2018 03:17 PM, Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 2 Oct 2018 07:30:17 -0400, JBI wrote:
It has been interesting that just two of the three USB 3 hard drives
would show up in Linux Parted Magic and I disassembled them to
find out
why.Â* For the two where Parted Magic allowed secure erase to be
initiated, they appear to be SATA drives with a USB 3 interface
plugged
into the SATA.
On the other, which is a Western Digital, there doesn't
appear to be any SATA to USB adapter and the USB 3 seems
integrated into
the drive.
What's the exact model number of the Western Digital product, and
what's
the model number of the WD drive that you found inside? I'd like to do
my best to avoid those items.
There's a Youtube on it. snip
OK, thanks. I was hoping your WD drive had a model name or number on it.
Do you have a link to the Youtube video?
Here's a link.Â* I didn't view this originally, but it shows a guy
trying to remove one WD drive and plug another into the USB 3
circuitry from the case... which he quickly discovers that with the
WD, this will be impossible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eFkjx9oWfI
This is what is hampering my efforts to use secure erase with these
type drives.Â* On ones where there is an actual SATA to USB 3 adapter,
I can do it, but not if it's integrated like the one in the video.
I'm waiting to hear back from the software firm that sells the BC
Total WipeOut software.Â* In my tests, it apparently did a total secure
erase on the WD drive in question, and showed it in the log, but I
want to absolutely confirm this with them that it did secure and not
just a standard overwrite with 0's.
I just heard back from Jetico, the firm making BC Total WipeOut.Â* They
confirm that since the log showed no errors and I did in fact specify
secure erase plus HPO/DCO erase/ reset, that all erasures were performed
on the drive as indicated.... good news for difficult drives like the WD
and the fact that it is a USB 3 external HD.Â* The trial has 21 days and
I only have the 1 pass zeroing option, but I will have done at least the
7 pass erases with DBAN first.Â* I think this is about as good as I'm
going to get without either physically destroying the drives and/or
investing $50 in the full version of the BC software.
I have a correction: the Jetico software, BC Total WipeOut, will NOT
delete/ reset/ overwrite the HPA/DCO partitions for USB connected HDD.
I heard back from them today with the correction. My response was that
they should make this fact known while using the software because as it
currently is, there's no indication either way... could easily give the
false impression that the wipes were done. Anyway, for me, in light of
this, definitely not worth the cost since much freeware out there
basically does the same thing, even DBAN, for USB attached drives.