I run sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda results: Security: Master password revision code = [redacted just in case it’s sensitive data] supported not enabled not locked frozen not expired: security count supported: enhanced erase My objective is to perform an enhanced secure erase (how? I’ll find that out after I know how to unfreeze my drive) … Read more
I have an old disk that often gets stuck in some form of loop, and often I need to perform a full reboot to get it “unstuck”, whereupon I had found out about the hdparm -w command. However, its manpage lists this command as dangerous: -w Perform a device reset (DANGEROUS). Do NOT use this … Read more
I’ve been trying to set the password on my Seagate drive: sudo hdparm –user-master m –security-set-pass pwd /dev/sda I get Issuing SECURITY_SET_Pass command, password=”pwd”, user=master, mode=high SECURITY_SET_PASS: Input/output error Why do I keep getting that error? Answer @Glad: Did you check if the drive was frozen? I figured out from the ata specs that it … Read more
On my Linux Mint 17.1 system I am using a Western Digital WD20EZRX HDD for backup. To minimize power consumption and to extend drive endurance, I want the HDD to normally be in spun-down standby state, and to only spin up when explicitly needed. This can be achieved in two ways: The trivial approach would … Read more
Closed. This question is off-topic. It is not currently accepting answers. Want to improve this question? Update the question so it’s on-topic for Super User. Closed 6 years ago. Improve this question Is there a utility similar to hdparm that can be run natively on Windows 8? Answer You can download both 32bit or 64bit … Read more
So, what is more secure and why? hdparm –security-erase-enhanced NULL /dev/sdX or dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx Answer They use different methods, and the effectiveness may depend on the drive. The former uses the ‘newer’ ATA secure erase command and the latter just overwrites it with zeros. For really old drives that don’t have ata secure erase … Read more
I’m trying to use hdparm to do secure erase of my 512GB SSD SK Hynix. SSD has Windows 10 installed in it. I boot Ubuntu from a usb flash drive. sudo fdisk -l I get a lot of different disks, turns out /dev/sda is my 8gb flash drive, not SSD. SSD is listed as: Disk … Read more
I’m trying hdparm in Kali Live to add a ATA password to my Micron M600 Self-encrypted SSD, I use: hdparm –security-set-pass PASSWORD sda But I get: sda: Issuing SECURITY_SET_PASS command, password=”PASSWORD”, user=user, mode=high SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 04 51 60 00 21 04 00 00 00 … Read more
hdparm‘s -B parameter is documented as: Get/set Advanced Power Management feature, if the drive supports it. A low value means aggressive power management and a high value means better per‐ formance. Possible settings range from values 1 through 127 (which permit spin-down), and values 128 through 254 (which do not permit spin-down). The highest degree … Read more
