DBAN... oh oh!

[Muse]

So, I have a Seagate Backup Plus 3TB USB HD I need to send back to Seagate (already received its RMA replacement). I have some data on it I'd like to wipe. I have a bootable DBAN CD I made a around 3 years ago. I did a bit of research online a week ago (DBAN site) and it said that it would nuke any detected HD. It also said it wouldn't detect SSD drives. So, I deduced that if I attach the Seagate HD to my Win7 laptop, which has an SSD in it (3 partitions, boot partition, data partition, service partition), I could boot from the DBAN CD and it would wipe the Seagate HD and would leave my SSD intact, right?

DBAN's website Here it says: No guarantee of data removal (e.g. DBAN does not detect or securely erase SSDs)

Well, to be sure, I backed up the 3 partitions on the SSD (around a week ago). I booted from the DBAN CD a few minutes ago. At first I ran it in interactive mode, but it didn't do anything after just a few seconds. So I rebooted and ran in "autonuke" mode. Unfortunately, it looks as though the SSD is being wiped! Guess there's nothing to do but wait it out.

 

[MountainKing]

What a PITA man. I feel for you. Thankfully, you've got backups

 

[Mushkins]

Lesson learned: never, ever, ever run a data wiping tool with a drive you don't want wiped attached to the system. Just because it "cant" wipe something doesn't mean it's not going to try anyway.

You could also just pull the plug on the system if you want to attempt to recover any of the data on that disk, assuming it hasn't finished its first pass of writes. But it's a good thing you have backups.

Also "secure erase" is a specific term for SSDs. DBAN is completely accurate in that it does not perform a secure erase, you need a tool from the drive manufacturer to do that. DBAN just overwrites all the data on every sector of the disk multiple times. Intentionally overwriting is not *erasing* from a technical perspective.

 

[Muse]

DBAN completed. It only detected the SSD, did not detect the USB-attached SATA 3TB HD. DBAN wiped the SSD and I'm about to restore it using my desktop and 2.5" enclosure for the SSD. I've done it before... one time, figure it will now.

Yes, I guess I'll call Seagate and ask them how I can remove the data from the 3TB HD. Maybe they have a utility.

 

[Muse]

Well, my XP machine does not see the SSD. What can I do? Acronis True Image WD Edition doesn't show it as a recover-to option...

 

[Muse]

My other computers do not see the SSD (which was wiped by DBAN, see OP). I cannot restore my backup if it is not seen. The laptop it was in sees it when trying to boot but reports it as not having an operating system. What can I do? It's in a 2.5" USB HD enclosure right now. Put it back as the drive in laptop and try installing Windows from the optical drive?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

My other computers do not see the SSD (which was wiped by DBAN, see OP). I cannot restore my backup if it is not seen. The laptop it was in sees it when trying to boot but reports it as not having an operating system. What can I do? It's in a 2.5" USB HD enclosure right now. Put it back as the drive in laptop and try installing Windows from the optical drive?

This.

USB drives usually don't show up as install locations, since Windows doesn't really work from USB drives.

 

[TheELF]

Try to connect it as an internal sata drive to some machine and recover your image.
If this fails that yes reinstall.

 

[Muse]

This.

USB drives usually don't show up as install locations, since Windows doesn't really work from USB drives.

That seems to be working. I started a fresh install of Win7 to the SSD, don't know if I did this right. Since there was a hidden Windows ~25MB partition (and I'd backed that up as well as the OS_Apps partition and the data partition, I had Windows create 3 partitions. Couldn't remember the exact dimensions of the hidden partition, so gave it 130MB. Don't think I got the partition types right, hopefully doesn't matter. Acronis is restoring right now, will see if things work. If they don't, I'll have to figure out exactly how to partition the SSD and redo the restore. :\

 

[razel]

You want to wipe your USB HDD before RMA? You don't need anything special. Just use the Windows to format the drive and uncheck quick format. That will write zeros to it. However, last that I used it, it had no progress bar so I usually just multiply copy my porn to the drive instead.

 

[Muse]

You want to wipe your USB HDD before RMA? You don't need anything special. Just use the Windows to format the drive and uncheck quick format. That will write zeros to it. However, last that I used it, it had no progress bar so I usually just multiply copy my porn to the drive instead.

Yeah, I see stuff all the time online about how erasing, deleting, formatting, whatever doesn't securely erase a HD. I do not understand this! Even Datalifeguard can write zeros, I think, ... wouldn't that make data recovery impossible?

Well, the machine is back up. My XP desktop was unable to restore the backup to the SSD. For some reason Acronis WD Edition doesn't seem to work on that machine. I went to my other Win7 laptop (Ultimate), and it was able to restore to the 3 partitions I'd managed to create on the SSD using Win7 installation disk. Boy, It's a good thing I didn't trust DBAN to not nuke my SSD in spite of what it said on DBAN's home page! That backup save my butt. Well, I had backups from before, but AFAIK none were complete, i.e. all 3 partitions on the SSD. I would have lost the data partition. Nothing crucial on it, actually, but I'm glad I just went ahead and backed up the whole thing.

Still have the task of rubbing out the data on the 3TB USB HD. Guess I'll just write zeros. Just do a regular format with Windows?

Edit: Well, WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics does give you the option to write zeros, both quick and thorough, and I just initiated the thorough writing with zeros to the entire drive. It estimates it will take 32 hours, so I guess I'll be sending the drive back to Seagate on Friday (today's Wednesday). Have to hand deliver it to the UPS store downtown. I had to pay Seagate $12.95 for a prepaid UPS mailing label, which came with the replacement drive.