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Secure Erase on Intel 320 SSD

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

hi,

want to ask, how to perform a Secure Erase using hdparm from a linux boot medium. I'm using a Macbook Pro.

I've already done that many times with a Intel SSD Postville G2, never had a problem performing a Secure Erase.

But with the new 320 series, it just won't work. I can't set a password by using the command:

hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass pwd /dev/sda There's no error message or anything like that. It just takes some seconds.

Here's what i get after trying to set a password:

Security: Master password revision code = 65534 supported not enabled not locked not frozen not expired: security count supported: enhanced erase 2min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.

It shouldn't output "not enabled", right? "enabled" would be fine?

Hope anyone is willing to help me, thanks a lot in advance!

I really appreciate it.

12 REPLIES 12

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

nobody performed a secure erase on his Intel 320 series SSD without using the intel toolbox?

thanks!

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

hi there,

i've the intel 320 120gb in my 2011 macbook pro and it's great. as far as secure erase. apples osx leopard disk come with it. what you need to do is boot from dvd with osx disk and on the top choose utility and it will offer you secure erase and secure erase with 7 passes or 30 passes.

i find it works great and very handy.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Thats actually the last thing you want to do.... By using the Mac's built in secure erase actually writes 0s to the drive so many times, which wears the drive out quickly and doesn't mark the cells free as the actual "Secure Erase" function does.

idata
Esteemed Contributor III

Are you sure the drive is actually named SDA... did you verify it isn't named SDA1 or something else..

Use GDParted (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=841182 http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=841182 3rd step) and check! Let me know if this is it!