HDDErase not recognizing drives, please help

[adsmith82]

I need to run HDDErase on an X25-M. No matter what bootable CD or flash drive I create, HDDErase does not see either of my SATA hard drives. I already disabled AHCI in BIOS. Also, I am using version 3.3. I know that 4.0 does not work with the X25-M.

Can someone help me troubleshoot this please? Big thanks.

 

[adsmith82]

really need to find a solution for this... maybe i need to try this on multiple other machines till i find one that works

anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Old Hippie]

I have a G1 and it required IDE and HDDErase to reset.

I have done it before I upgraded the firmware but when trying to do it again last week, there was no way.

HDDErase will not recognize either on my G1 drives.

I have no idea what happened other than the firmware update.

 

[adsmith82]

Thanks for your reply.

I have a conventional sata hard drive in my laptop along with the sata x25-m, but hdderase will not see either drive. I also tried it on two desktop pc's. With the first, hdderase does not see the sata drive, and there is no option for legacy ide support in bios. With the other desktop (which does not have SATA at all), hdderase DOES see the internal drive. I guess I need to look for a SATA > IDE adapter? Maybe that is the only solution unless I can find a pc that will allow hdderase to recognize sata drives. Again, my laptop does have the option to disable ahci for legacy ide support, but it does not enable hdderase to see either of my drives.

 

[Old Hippie]

I guess I need to look for a SATA > IDE adapter?

Definately no guarantees with those do-dad adaptors....they are iffy at best and I wouldn't even give it a 50% chance of working.

When I tried last week there was no way they were going to see my drives.

I tried every configuration possible more than one time and even though I had done it on one drive before, even that drive couldn't be seen.

I have given up and installed my RAID0 array on those drives.

If you find something that works, let me know.

 

[adsmith82]

i ordered an adapter today from ebay. We'll see what happens.

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: adsmith82
i ordered an adapter today from ebay. We'll see what happens.

Cool!

If it works, I'll be getting one.

Which one did you buy?

 

[zerogear]

Have you tried DBAN?

http://www.dban.org/

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: zerogear
Have you tried DBAN?

http://www.dban.org/

I don't know if DBan will do the same trick as HDDErase.

The trick seems to be to use a tool to perform a SECURE ERASE command on the drive. This command will release all of the user LBA locations internally in the drive and result in all of the NAND locations being reset to an erased state..

HDDErase 3.3 was recommended by Intel for this job because it could see the G1 drives.

Do you know if DBan will do this?

 

[adsmith82]

http://cgi.ebay.com/IDE-SATA-B...8&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

I ordered from a different seller, but I believe this is the same one. It's bi-directional, so you can connect sata drive to ide controller, or ide drive to sata controller. Also, chose this one over others because the included power cable has a connector for the adapter itself as well as both sata and molex connectors for the drive.

It's good to have someone who understands what I'm trying to do with the drive. It seems like everyone just tells me to format or wipe the drive, which will not accomplish my goal.

Nonetheless, thanks zerogear for your suggestion.

 

[Old Hippie]

Oh crap, I already have one of these.

Looks about the same as you bought only more of it. :laugh:

Zerogear got me thinkin', usually a bad idea that ends costing me money, and I'm looking around for other drive wipers that have this DoD Compliant 5220.22-M secure erase command.

I'm sure Intel wanted to direct consumers to something free for this drive wiper but I would think there's something else.

I've found some that are DoD compliant but I'm gonna do a little more research.

 

[adsmith82]

That is a USB adapter, it won't allow an SATA drive to connect to IDE interface.

I have wondered if there are other programs that do the same thing, but since Intel recommended HDDErase 3.3, that is what I would be comfortable using. As long as I can know for sure that another program will do exactly the same thing, I would be okay with that. Let me know what you find.

 

[Old Hippie]

That is a USB adapter, it won't allow an SATA drive to connect to IDE interface.

Ahhh, 'tis true.

I don't believe Intel would have recommened anything but something free.

Can you imagine the uproar if they said you'd have to buy a program to do this?

AAR, none of the programs I have researched have specifically stated they use the secure erase command.

 

[adsmith82]

i wonder if you can issue that command from a linux console or something

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: adsmith82
i wonder if you can issue that command from a linux console or something

I know I have seen a page on Wikipedia explaning the commands to run secure erase from a bootdisk.

I can't find it ATM but I'll keep looking.