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#57 use Secure Erase command where available

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nobody
None
5
2008-02-26
2008-02-26
No

though this isn't a huge issue, most drives know how to remap bad sectors automatically, and never report this to the operating system[1]. this means that data stored in those remapped sectors will still exist even after the OS completely overwrites every available sector. a comprehensive drive wipe exists ("Secure Erase") through directly telling a drive to wipe itself, implemented as part of the ATA command set standard on all modern drives (though limited by some broken BIOSes that block the command).

can DBAN offer this functionality where available? code is available in hdparm[2] that issues the commands, but using hdparm is not nearly as convenient as using DBAN.

1 - http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/CmrrSecureEraseProtocols.pdf
2 - http://sourceforge.net/projects/hdparm/

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