Re: Trouble with hdparm -d on Dell D610

["Greg Freemyer" <greg.freemyer@gmail.com>]

On Jan 11, 2008 4:34 PM, Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> > most of the machines I encounter  (and with both SATA and IDE drives),
> > except for the Dell D610 and HP 7700 (small desktop pc).  The models I
> > just mentioned run the shred really slow, which I believe is due to
> > the DMA problem I was having (outlined in my previous emails).  Any
> > thoughts?
>
> If your shred program is relying on DMA then you are using the wrong tool
> for the job. The correct way to erase a disk is to send it a security
> erase command. Rewriting over the data may not do what is wanted.

Alan,

I was talking to Kristin this morning about doing that.  I was
concerned that there is not anybody certifying that each individual
disk drive model / firmware release is properly implementing the
Security Erase function.

Are you aware of testing body, etc. that publishes a white-list of
drives that are known to have a proper implementation of Security
Erase?  Lacking something like that and realizing how rarely it is
used, I'm not sure it should be trusted.

Performing both a Security Erase and calling shred on the drive might
be the ultimate one-two punch.

Greg
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