"In order to protect your privacy and other interests in data, you should delete all data, or as much as possible, prior to returning any product to Seagate."

 

I know long SMART scans can be initiated as a background process from the unRAID page but can a secure erase be initiated for a drive I'm about to return for a Seagate RMA?

 

Or do I open a ssh window and run "sudo hdparm --security-erase /dev/sdl" and leave the window open until it finishes?

 

Oh wait that doesn't work: 

root@Server2018:~# sudo hdparm --security-erase /dev/sdl
missing PASSWD
root@Server2018:~# 

 

HDD is connected via USB dock to unRAID PC and shows up in Unassigned Devices as sdl.

 

I would think a Preclear would do a good enough job.  Writes zeros to all data locations.

28 minutes ago, ConnerVT said:

I would think a Preclear would do a good enough job.  Writes zeros to all data locations.

 

Thanks for your suggestion! I appreciate you taking the time to help.

 

As you mentioned, pre-clear is a valuable tool for checking drive health. However, my primary focus is securely erasing the data on this drive before returning it for RMA. My understanding is that pre-clear focuses on read-modify-write cycles for data integrity, while secure erase specifically overwrites the entire drive with patterns to render data unrecoverable.

 

Perhaps there are specific pre-clear functionalities that you're aware of that might be suitable for secure erase in this case? I'd be happy to learn more if that's the case.

Incorrect.  The Preclear in Unraid (Unassigned Devices) runs in 3 basic steps - reads every data location, writes zero to every data location, then reads/confirms zero is at every location.  Afterward, it writes a pre-cleared value to the drive, so you can then put the drive into your array and not need to rebuild parity (as Unraid sees that all locations contain zero, so no changes needed to the parity data).

 

So after running Preclear, any data which may have been on he drive is now all zeros.  Not a multi-pass Department of Defense wipe, but sufficient for keeping your info away from whomever gets their hands on your RMS.

57 minutes ago, oh-tomo said:

overwrites the entire drive with patterns to render data unrecoverable.

All zeroes means the data is unrecoverable by any normal means. The dod procedure is meant for situations where there is a possibility that the drive may have extraordinary attempts to read it, possibly by off track analysis or raw magnetic field imaging. Those techniques, which are not even effective any more for many modern drives, are extremely time consuming and costly to try. If you suspect you may be the target of a government agency investigation that is willing to spend an unlimited budget to read your discarded drive, then trust me, you have much bigger problems.

The Data-Rebuild with the new drive finished so I was able to shut down and connect the old drive directly to SATA data & SATA power with the unRAID PC and on power up it appears in unassigned devices.  The old drive is an Iron Wolf Pro and there's a PSID number on the label -- can I use this PSID to do a Instant Secure Erase and save time compared what sounds like a lengthy preclear read/write/read/confirm operation for a 16TB HDD? It would be nice to know if a faster erase for RMA option is possible for this and any future RMAs.

Anything less than a full over-write will not prevent recovery of data by determined hacker.  (Double check the Preclear option on UD as it may allow skipping the pre-read and post-read portions of the cycle.)  Remember that once the write portion is finished, you can kill the post read operation...    I doubt if you would need the triple-write cycle that the Penagon requires unless you think some three letter foreign or domestic government agency is interested in what you have on that disk.  (If that was a concern, I would not be RMA'ing the drive.  I would be opening up the drive and physically inventorying the platters!!!)

Edited February 19, 20242 yr by Frank1940

According to Seagate, Instant Secure Erase eliminates the need to physically destroy or overwrite the drive, saving time, money, and resources. Maybe @stereobastler has figured out how to get ISE to work on unRAID in the 3 years since starting this thread:

 

 

6 hours ago, oh-tomo said:

According to Seagate, Instant Secure Erase eliminates the need to physically destroy or overwrite the drive, saving time, money, and resources. Maybe @stereobastler has figured out how to get ISE to work on unRAID in the 3 years since starting this thread:

 

 

 

As I read this (a very quick read to be granted), you have to make the decision at the time when you install the drive to employ SED on your drive.  It is  not an after-the-fact solution!