Dban not the best option ?

I, like most of you, have been using DBAN for years to securly wipe the contents of my drive before giving it away but according to the article found on this page http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/DataSanitizationTutorial.pdf Dban (and all other programs that use the American DoD 5220 standard) may not the best way to securly wipe the contents of your drive and, according to the article, the "Secure Erase" command which is built into all ATA drives manufactured after 2001 with atleast 15gb of space does the job faster and is more secure then using tools like Dban so my question is if this technology has been around and in all of our drives for the past 6 years now why is this the first time I have heard of it and why isn't it the standard instead of programs like Dban ?

here is a quote form zdnet about secure erase...

 

I share in that interest and curiosity myself. I been using D-Ban plus my imaging program's wiper to so-called sanitize the disk before a new reinstall or to give away, but last night i tried a floppy disk program named HDDERASE and it didn't even show any HD activity on the tower LED blinker and was quiet as mouse.

I did make one mistake however. Be very careful if you use hdderase on which selection you choose because it does very well indeed "LOCK" the Hard Drive, somehow using the HD manufacturer's internal lock command, and i got locked out for hours untill i finally re-read the instructions and reapplied the Secure Erase and allowed it to complete before it UNLOCKED the HD again.

Seems if you abort, like i did, while it's erasing the locked drive, that HD remains permanantly locked untill you restart HDDERASE again and choose SECURE ERASE and allow it to finish.

This drove me bananas for hours, because i stopped it because of not noticing any HD activity as normal wiping software usually makes, and not even any rescue disk could access the HD. It returned each and every time Hard Drive I/O Fault, Period!

So beware, but be advised on a positive note, it does seem to perform beyond the normal means we always depended on with wiping programs such as D-Ban etc.

I won't be afraid to wipe a drive again with HddErase now i know to leave it be untill it's complete.

Afterwards, my Windows XP Pro install took off like a rocket and was over in minutes, so it must have done something effective in that department.

Here is a Wilder's topic with articles about this for review that may shed some light.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=177197&highlight=hdderase

 

Article about:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

Author's Download & Site
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

 

Article about:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

Author's Download & Site
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

 

Thanks for the quick reply and I did do some further research after my initial post and read about the bios freezing the command which to me I see as a positive because if the command is so powerful that most bios manufacutes lock it then it has to be something good (in the right hands that is) The thing I like the best about this command is that it's not only more secure then Dban it's also 8x faster so what normally takes me 24 hours to accomplish with dban should only take me 3 with this command so I say it's a win win for us lucky enough to be able to use it so it's goodbye dban and hellp secure erase for me.

Cheers,
Nosix

 

I don't understand, how can it be faster and more secure at the same time? I thought an overwrite was an overwrite.

 

If the bios freezes the command, then how can this function be accessed? Id read about this some time ago and am now in a situation where i need to erase my disc.

 

Agree

I thought while using HDDERASE, especially via a plastic floppy disk i would be in for hours of delay untill complete, but that simply did not happen. In fact IT WAS considerably faster by a good margin.

I dunno what commands they build into hard drives to pull of such a feat but apparently it works, electronically no less.

Would absolutely love to read more insight and experiences from other users about their successes or failures with this technique.

EASTER

 

Is secure erase an option if you don't have a floppy drive? All I've seen are instructions for using SE via a floppy. How about a CD based utility?

Perhaps DBAN is the only option in that instance?

 

The secure erase command boots of cd's and usb flash drives.