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#16
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secure erase question comment
JBI wrote:
Basically, almost all of the WD drives have integrated USB right into the drive, so there's no separation. No, the USB-ported WDC drives are used in their portable drives. That's why folks cracking open the WDC portable drive enclosures get surprised when they find the HDD has a USB port instead of a SATA port. The laptop, desktop, and other format factor WDC drives have the SATA interface (and why you need to get a USB enclosure with the SATA-to-USB logic board to convert between the protocols). Having no separate PCB in the external enclosure for SATA-to-USB conversion means the box can be smaller. The converter is on the drive's own PCB (for example, http://tinyurl.com/y9ftce2a). I don't keep a comprehensive list of WDC HDDs that have the embedded SATA-to-USB converter hence the USB connector on the drive. A couple a WD WD5000BMVU-11A08S0 WD7500KMVV-11A27S2 WD6400KMVV-11BG7S0 WD3200BMVV-11DCLS0 I don't know if it's the "MVV" or the "-11" that signifies a USB interface on the drive. If the controller fails, the drive is worthless. Pretty much the same result whether the HDD has a SATA or USB port. If the drive's firmware fails, doesn't matter what port type it uses. Maybe you meant the controller inside the external enclosure. If it has one and it fails, yes, you can migrate the SATA-ported HDD to another enclosure (with a PCB for SATA-to-USB conversion); however, if the SATA controller on the HDD fails then migration is worthless. Seagate, Toshiba and others don't seem to do this as often; I was able to do secure erase on an external Seagate USB 3 HDD. With the Toshiba, one secure erased; another did not and, upon opening, its controller was integrated like the WD. I don't know if Parted Magic or other partition editors are using the secure erase function in the HDD itself or if they are simply writing new data of varying patterns to the HDD (which won't cover the MBR/UEFI section or boot sector of each partition although for the latter they could write new random bootstrap code into the boot sector of a partition). The secure erase built into an HDD is initiated by issuing a SATA command. If the drive doesn't have a ATA interface (whether parallel or serial), there's probably no way to request the drive to erase itself. https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-secure-erase-2626004 https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase I guess they're getting cheap and trying to save costs by integrating controller into the HDD. Bad news if the controller goes down. More likely they are trying to save on space. With a USB converter built into the HDD's own PCB, there is no need for a separate SATA-to-USB converter PCB inside the external enclosure. That could, for example, leave space in a larger case to add other components, like a fan to cool the HDD, or to just allow using a case that is just a few millimeters larger than the drive itself. Enclosures with a SATA-to-USB converter PCB are larger hence not so portable; i.e., they often do not fit inside your shirt pocket. USB built into the HDD means a smaller case and more portable (fits into smaller pockets). |
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#17
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secure erase question comment
Char Jackson wrote:
On Tue, 2 Oct 2018 18:56:15 -0400, 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. 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. 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 Thanks. The good news is that that's a 2.5" drive, so there's zero chance that I would be buying that type of product. These are 15mm high 2.5" drives (non-standard) with up to 5TB capacity. Some of them are impressive for the size. They're too high to fit in a laptop. Paul |
#18
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secure erase question comment CORRECTION
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. |
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