OT: Can Reformatting A Hard Drive To ext3 Destroy All the Data On It?

[Robert L Cochran]

On 05/30/2009 04:49 AM, Mike Cloaked wrote:
>
> Alan Cox wrote:
>    
>> Use security erase, that is why it is there.
>>
>>
>>      
>
> How do you access the security erase facility?
>    

 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. The
applicable drive password is selected with the --user-master switch. No 
other flags are permitted on the command line with this one. THIS FEA-
TURE IS EXPERIMENTAL AND NOT WELL TESTED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

--security-erase-enhanced PWD
Enhanced erase (locked) drive, using password PWD (DANGEROUS). Password 
is given as an ASCII string and is padded with NULs to reach 32 bytes.
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.

I think that is what Alan means. You can google on 'security erase' to 
look for the procedure for doing it. The drive itself has to be capable 
of this kind of erasure.

Bob