Other than HDDERASE what can issue drive SE command?

Greetings,

Will diskutil's "secureErase" do what you want? The documentation suggests that it is the right tool for the job.

-David

I don't think there is one ? , since OSX has a built-in Security Erase utility
http//support.apple.com/kb/TA24002?viewlocale=en_US
http//docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=DiskUtility/10.5/en/duh1011.html

Though it is probably much slower that internal ATA command.

Theoretically, one could adopt a similar strategy as that indicated on the CMRR site
http//cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

Q Can HDDerase.exe be run under Windows XP?

A Usually no, but it can be done with a kernel mode driver. A kernel mode
driver can give the user direct access to the IDE I/O ports that can not normally
be accessed in a Windows NT/XP environment (see following question on how to
do this). It is not recommended to run HDDerase.exe in a Windows NT/XP
environment because of conflicts that may occur when opening the ports. The
preferred method is booting up the system in a true DOS environment and then
running HDDerase.exe.

Q Where can I find a kernel mode driver that will give me access to the IDE
I/O ports?

A http//www.embeddedtronics.com/design&ideas.html >> UserPort.zip. Follow
the installation instructions and add the I/O ports for the IDE channel you want
to use. Normally the I/O ports for the primary channel are 1F0-1F7 and 3F6-3F6,
and the ports for the secondary channel are 170-177 and 376-376. You may check
you systems IDE ports by going to >> My computer >> properties >> hardware tab >>
device manager >> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers >> primary/secondary IDE channel >>
properties >> resources.

Either booting XP on the Mac through bootcamp
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_(software)
or something like it, but really cannot say how dependable it could be and if it would be worth the effort, as compared to taking the drive out and attaching it to a "normal" PC or running the OSX utility.

jaclaz

Greetings,

Ok, this sounds similar to my efforts to set the HPA under anything other than Windows. Linux kept mounting the IDE drive with the SCSI drivers because I was using a Tableau IDE-USB interface. I eventually added the drive directly to the IDE bus and booted into Linux. Then I could use IDE commands to set the HPA. I didn't find a way to do this in OS X.

To bring this back on topic, if you mount the drive under Linux, then the hdparm command should give you access to the secure erase command

hdparm –security-erase /dev/hda

or

hdparm –security-erase-enhanced /dev/hda

This will not work, as noted above, with if the drive appears under the SCSI subsystem, at least as far as I can tell.

There is no hdparm port to OS X that I could find.

-David

-David