From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail190.messagelabs.com (mail190.messagelabs.com [216.82.249.51]) by kanga.kvack.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3F9E86B017C for ; Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:12:08 -0400 (EDT) Received: by iwn11 with SMTP id 11so2513872iwn.11 for ; Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:12:06 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <4B9D0879.5050809@teksavvy.com> References: <20100303224245.ae8d1f7a.akpm@linux-foundation.org> <87f94c371003040617t4a4fcd0dt1c9fc0f50e6002c4@mail.gmail.com> <4B8FC6AC.4060801@teksavvy.com> <87f94c371003111029s7c7daebgf691ab11e6bdda25@mail.gmail.com> <4B9D0879.5050809@teksavvy.com> Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:12:06 -0400 Message-ID: <87f94c371003140912g1a567458ic2d78da6eed7fdb3@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: Linux kernel - Libata bad block error handling to user mode program From: Greg Freemyer Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: owner-linux-mm@kvack.org To: Mark Lord Cc: Andrew Morton , foo saa , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, Jens Axboe , linux-mm@kvack.org List-ID: On Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 12:02 PM, Mark Lord wrote: > On 03/11/10 13:29, Greg Freemyer wrote: >>> >>> But really.. isn't "hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sdX" good enough >>> ??? >>> >> >> This thread seems to have died off. =A0If there is a real problem, I >> hope it picks back up. >> >> Mark, as to your question the few times I've tried that the bios on >> the test machine blocked the command. =A0So it may have some specific >> utility, but it's a not a generic solution in my mind. > > .. > > Yeah, a lot of BIOSs do a "SECURITY FREEZE" command before booting, > which disables things like "SECURITY ERASE" until the next hard reset. > > So, on a Linux system, just unplug the drive after booting, replug it, > and usually it can then be erased. I have a client that wipes 10,000+ drives a month. (They do this as a service to banks, etc. as the machines they're in are retired, so they use 10,000+ machines to wipe those 10,000+ drives.) They tend not to open the case, just boot via PXE/USB/CD and run a wiping t= ool. Opening the case to do as you propose is not really acceptable. Also they still have a lot of IDE inside those retiring machines. fyi: If the wipe fails for whatever reason, they do open the case and physically remove/disable/sanitize the drive. Greg -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@kvack.org. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: email@kvack.org