HDDErase 3.3-4.0 and gParted Fail

[idata]

I tried both versions of HDDErase on my (2)X25M-G2. Both sit at the blinking cursor screen and refuse to execute the task. I have two places to select RAID modes in my bios. When I enter the BIOS I choose integrated peripherals from the Main Menu. Now I have the option to choose RAID Mode. I can choose AHCI or IDE. Now further down in the integrated peripherals menu is the option to open another menu for the On Board Controller.In this menu I now have another RAID related setting. The options are RAID,IDE,and AHCI. I tried choosing AHCI for both, and booting up HDDErase. No luck. I tried IDE for both. No luck. So I started digging and digging through tons of articles and posts. I found info about using the hdparm command in gParted and Ubuntu. I tried the latest version of gParted. The command posted was hdparm --security-enhanced-erase NULL /dev/XXX where XXX is the drive identifier. In my case sda and sdb. I think that command was outdated as I refered to the help guide in gparted which more or less said the command was hdparm --security-erase-enhanced NULL /dev/XXX And still no luck. So I took it a step further. I read in some cases unplugging the SATA cable from the drives, powering up,boot to gParted, plug the drives in, refresh the drive list, then run the command will work. No such luck. I got an input/out error. I tried sudo hdparm --security-erase-enhanced NULL /dev/XXX and still get input/output error. I tried sudo hdparam -I which says the drive is now unlocked for 2 minuetes. Still I get the input out put error. gParted recognizes three partitions. The partitions for each 80GB drive, which are both unallocated, and a single 150 GB partition with ~70GB in use. With evrything else failing, I wonder, should I delete the 150GB Partition(not format just remove), apply that,and then try hdparm?

Oh and for the record I have a P55-GD65 mobo, running the drives in RAID0, with the latest firmware.

[DZand]

Xplorer4x4 schrieb:

Your step by step is useless with out one critical detail. From the Toolbox User Guide:

Secure Erase cannot be run on a bootable SSD or on an SSD with a partition.

This statement done by Intel is only valid for the Intel Toolbox, because this application can only be run from within Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 and the OS wouldn't work anymore after the erasure of all data.

Contrary to the Intel Toolbox it is no problem to do a secure erase with the tool HDDErase on a bootable SSD containing the OS partition, because this tool only needs a DOS environment and it is very easy to create a bootable floppy, CD or USB with just the required DOS files and the file HDDERASE.EXE.

Since all data of all SSD partitions will be deleted after having done the secure erase, it is very important, that the user has done a complete backup of the SSD content before going to execute the HDDERASE.EXE.

[idata]

Well after yet many many hours wasted trying to get hdderase working again, I give up! I am convinced the app will not work on my current PC. I suspect it has something to do with the SATA controller as I have searched and searched and tried every damn trick on the Internet...I tried disconnecting the power cable or data/sata cables and tried to boot hdderase. No luck. I deleted the RAID array, Deleted all the data off the disks. Set the discs to IDE mode and disabled the extra 7th SATA controller. Hell I even tried to boot an SSD off the 7th SATA port which is a Jmicron controller vs Intel Controller and still a big fail. I tried to launch Mini XP(Live copy of WinXP) and tried to install the SSD Toolbox but it failed because the .NET framework 2 was not installed. That wouldnt install due top limitations set for the OS. Tried to configure the settings myself, with no luck. It would be fantastic if Intel simply provided an official bootable no fus tool to secure erase our SSDs, but I doubt that will ever happen. Untill that day, I will stick with Parted Magic. Nice simple GUI, and it executes the Secure Erase command. It also offers Enhanced Secure Erase which claims to write a predetermined amount of data to the disk as stated by the SSD manufacturer. I can't comment on how well it follows any official specs from Intel but it executes Secure Erase with no fuss. What more can you ask for when HDDErase refuses to work? You know just as well as I do this forum is littered with probably a hundred or more threads with people trying to get HDDErase to work. Searching the Internet through google increases that to potentially thousands imo. There is no shortage of thread with people who simply can not get HDDErase working. I am truly disappointed in Intel lack of support on this matter. I do not mean my specific issue, but the major problems faced by users trying to use HDDErase in general.