Can't get HDDErase.exe to work at all. Help please.

[Old Hippie]

@darkewaffle
HDDErase.exe can not work on AHCI-based controllers; you would need an IDE controller (i.e. SATA controller with BIOS set to IDE emulation/legacy mode).

Ports 5 and 6 only work in AHCI mode. May be a limitation specific only to some chipsets, or all, i'm not sure.

On some AMD boards ports 5&6 are AHCI only and that's why I thought it was unusual that those were the only ports that worked with HDDErase.

 

[sub.mesa]

That is strange indeed. I could be wrong about something.

But it appears not to be unique to AMD, nVidia chipsets are also affected:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=244633

The motherboard manual says: "Due to chipset limitation, SATA 4 and SATA 5 do not support IDE mode, only support AHCI+RAID mode"

I remember those things in my manuals as well over the years.

 

[Old Hippie]

nVidia chipsets are also affected

I forgot all about those guys. :biggrin:

I have a XFX GeForce 8200 Motherboard and I'm pretty sure ports 5&6 are unusable unless you load/run the AHCI drivers. Sounds like darkewaffle's MB is a nicer model since he has options for his.

 

[ModestGamer]

If an SSD supports the secure erase feature, then all HDDErase does is send the secure erase command. The SSD then simply supplies 21 volts across the substrate and all NAND is wiped clean in an instant.

Getting HDD Erase to work on some motherboards can be a real pain. It should be run with SATA in IDE mode to stand any chance of working.

21v you sure about that. Most modern chips of this design run vpp programming voltages around 5-12v dc. 21v is old school eprom stuff. To erase a flash chip is a rather simple affiar. Pull up VPP to x volts and pulse the data lines to x operating voltage. Release vpp and chip is now blank.

but the technology on these might be different then the traditional flash chips I am used to using. either way 21v is scary and would contribute to a significantly reduce operating life for sure.

 

[darkewaffle]

Actually, and I'm going by memory here, on that particular motherboard at least I think that the sata4 and sata5 can only be set to Raid or AHCI if sata0 - sata3 are set to Raid or AHCI as well, so you either have the choice of mimicing 0-3 or leaving them in Legacy IDE mode.

I don't think that you can make 0-3 raid and 4-5 ahci, for example.

 

[Old Hippie]

that the Sata_4 and Sata_5

1-3 raid and 4-5 ahci

Are you getting ports 4&5 mixed-up with 5&6?

There are 6 ports....right?

 

[darkewaffle]

Yea, 6 ports. I just havent been very consistent with the naming conventions haha. I mean to say SATA_0 through SATA_3 would be 1-4 and SATA_4 & SATA_5 would be 5-6.

Fixed previous post for clarity.

 

[Old Hippie]

Yea, 6 ports. I just havent been very consistent with the naming conventions haha. I mean to say SATA_0 through SATA_3 would be 1-4 and SATA_4 & SATA_5 would be 5-6.

Fixed previous post for clarity.

Cool!

I thought that's what was happening but I just wanted to make sure.

 

[coffeejunkee]

I want to wipe and restore my Kingston SSDNow V series (425 model) to its original performance and then reinstall Windows.

Creating and formatting a new partition when installing Windows does not do this? (simply interested, Intel ssd toolbox does a good enough job for me).

 

[=Wendy=]

21v you sure about that. Most modern chips of this design run vpp programming voltages around 5-12v dc. 21v is old school eprom stuff. To erase a flash chip is a rather simple affiar. Pull up VPP to x volts and pulse the data lines to x operating voltage. Release vpp and chip is now blank.

but the technology on these might be different then the traditional flash chips I am used to using. either way 21v is scary and would contribute to a significantly reduce operating life for sure.

An excellent read about NAND
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?65372-SSDs-A-Look-Inside

More to the point of secure erase on an SSD.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...else-Sandforce&p=539261&viewfull=1#post539261

 

[ModestGamer]

An excellent read about NAND
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?65372-SSDs-A-Look-Inside

More to the point of secure erase on an SSD.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/f...else-Sandforce&p=539261&viewfull=1#post539261

Wow that neat sutff. Used to EEproms Eproms. Hadn't read up much about flash and NAND tech. Gonna take a few minutes to digest that. 21v is scary for silicon but Mosfet design can handle many multiples of that easily.

 

[rolodomo]

HDDErase, what a fluky utility.... I experimented with it a bit (reset my X25 G2 RAID array), but lost confidence in it quickly.

There were some good options already mentioned in this thread. But for anyone currently searching the subject, here's another Linux variation. I booted a usb stick containing a recent Ubuntu distribution, which includes the hdparm utility. No problems booting it up and using hdparm to send a secure erase individually to each of my X-25M G2(s) in AHCI mode (using an X58 ICH10R chipset). I had no probems with the SSD(s) being frozen during the Ubuntu bootup (in contrast to the drives being frozen during a DOS bootup). Thus, no hot-swapping was required

I followed this procedure: https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase