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    ATA Secure Erase on an Old ThinkPad

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by ckx, Feb 17, 2010.

  1. ckx

    ckx Notebook Evangelist

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    What I have: ThinkPad X30, and a Transcend IDE (PATA) SSD drive.

    What I want to do: Perform ATA secure erase.

    The problem: I cannot perform secure disk erase because the ThinkPad BIOS issues a security freeze command to the SSD on boot up, which prevents the drive from accepting further ATA security commands.

    My question: Is there something I can do to disable the ATA security freeze feature of the BIOS?
     
    ckx, Feb 17, 2010
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  2. erik

    erik modifier

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    erik, Feb 17, 2010
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  3. ckx

    ckx Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks for the reference! However, my needs are more specific than generic data erasure. Standard disk erasure tools write to every block on the disk, which makes the SSD controller think that every single block contains useful data and must be moved for wear leveling. The ATA secure erase command, in contrast, tells the SSD controller that the entire drive contains no useful data, so the wear leveling mechanism resets to factory condition (and eliminates common SSD problems such as internal fragmentation).

    I need the ATA secure erase.
     
    ckx, Feb 17, 2010
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  4. darkwish

    darkwish Notebook Enthusiast

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    Maybe this will help.
    From the HDDErase FAQ:

     
    darkwish, Feb 17, 2010
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  5. jonlumpkin

    jonlumpkin NBR Transmogrifier

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    I've done this several times on my (admittedly newer) x200 Tablet with Samsung SLC SATA SSD. In my experience you need to run it once, tell it to override the BIOS freeze, restart, and perform an "Enhanced Secure Erase". This has worked without fail for me (using HDDerase 3.3). You also need to be in 'Compatibility mode' (rather than AHCI) but I believe this only applies to SATA drives.
     
    jonlumpkin, Feb 17, 2010
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  6. ckx

    ckx Notebook Evangelist

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    I just gave this method a try, and it turns out that the HDDErase freeze override feature is drive dependent. The method you described works great on my TravelStar 5K100 HDD, but it does not work on my Transcend SSD (HDDErase shows disk frozen but does not prompt for freeze override). Oh well.
     
    ckx, Feb 18, 2010
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  7. erik

    erik modifier

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    SDD isn't looking like such a bad option after all. :p ;)
     
    erik, Feb 18, 2010
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  8. ckx

    ckx Notebook Evangelist

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    In the end I pulled a (stupid & risky) stunt and unfreezed the drive. Thanks to everyone for your help!
     
    ckx, Feb 18, 2010
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