What am I getting myself in to with HDDErase

Hi gang,

I know some of you use the above program to wipe your drives. It seems to be the fastest. I came across this article

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?74093-How-to-use-HDDErase

Is this what you have to go through? Maybe it's just SSD drives. This is crazy uninstalling and re-installing your HD's.

What should I know before playing with this?

Thanks

 

I haven't read that article, but have used HDDErase.exe on the UBCD for HDD's not SDD's.
SDD's are a different technology and will have different requirements for completing a secure erasure than HDD's.

Originally HDDErase.exe was available here Center for Magnetic Recording Research UC San Diego

In the CMRR HDDErase literature, the removal and reinstallation of HDD's is for a condition of the BIOS called a freeze lock that prevents a HDD from being wiped by a rogue program/user.
Since it requires physical access to overcome the freeze lock it limits potential damage.

HDDErase.exe is just a program to access the Secure Erase Function built into HDD's since 2001.
hdparm in Linux, from a LiveCD can do the same.

If you're interested in really fast wiping, HDD's with built in encryption tend to support the Enhanced Secure Erase function which allows for a 1 terabyte drive to be wiped in less than 20 seconds.

 

Oh, okay, I got it. I was worried of getting locked out of the drive.

I have a 500gig drive to wipe. All my drives were bought between 2003-2005 so I don't know if it has Enhanced Secure Erase or not. That would be awesome to be able to do it that fast.

I have been using Dban and I'm sick of waiting kazillions of hours before I can touch it.

 

You couldn't possibly erase that much data that quickly on a conventional hard drive. It's probably just erasing the encryption key.

 

It is easy enough to verify if just wiping an encryption key is what is occurring.

Must have a HDD that has built in encryption.
The HDD must support the Enhanced Secure Erase function.
A hex editor to view before and after.

No zeros and data is still on the drive.

 

Enhanced Secure Erase is indeed just wiping the encryption key:

 

Does anyone know if HDD Erase wipes USB sticks? I have been searching the net and found nothing.