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From: David Empson on 26 Jul 2010 11:08
Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> wrote:

> In article <1jm9n8z.1qq7yjj1kqt3e4N%dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz>,
> dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:
>
> > If you use "zero out data", then Erase Drive or Partition Drive will
> > overwrite everything that was previously on the drive. Every sector of
> > the drive is overwritten with zeros.
>
> Obligatory question: Hex zeroes or binary zeroes?

Yes. :-)

Not ASCII zeros, however.
--
David Empson
dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz
From: Nick Naym on 26 Jul 2010 11:17
In article C87359BF.A25A1%noreply(a)nospam.invalid, MartinC at
noreply(a)nospam.invalid wrote on 7/26/10 9:26 AM:

> Nick Naym wrote:
>
>> The drive just mounted after being shut down all night. It mounted as a
>> fully formatted drive (i.e., it now appears just the way it did after the
>> last time I reinitialized it).
>>
>> I can "zero out" the _drive_ two ways: via DU's Erase tab, or via DU's
>> Partition tab; and I can "zero out" the _volume_ one way: via DU's Erase
>> tab.
>>
>> I don't know which of these 3 ways is preferred because I don't know what
>> the differences are.
>
> The one that takes hours... (are you sure that you really did it that way?)
>
> Click on the "Erase" tab,

The "Erase" tab for the _device_ or for the _volume_?





then you will see a button called "security
> options" below (may be slightly different, I'm non-english here :-)
>
> You should get a dialog with 4 options:
> - don't delete data
> - write zeroes
> - write zeroes, 7 passes
> - write zeroes, 35 passes
>
> The second one (write zeroes, 1 pass) is the one to go. Depending on the
> size of the drive, it will take some serious time. If you haven't done this
> (i.e. if the dialog has a "don't delete" setting and your successful format
> was pretty quick) then you may still have a possible bad block that may have
> caused all this.
>
> All formatting that is finished within some 1-2 minutes is nothing but
> writing a small "empty" directory and leave everything else as it is. If you
> do this, a new owner of your drive (or the company you send it to) could
> easily recover most of your personal data.
>
>> It's still under warranty...but I'm curious what "something more" you have
>> in mind.
>
> LaCie will not "repair" it, at least not for an acceptable price, so without
> warranty you can throw it away... before you do that you could open the case
> (this will *kill* your warranty, so don't do it for fun) and get out the
> plain drive. If you connect it to an internal S-ATA bus then you can read
> out the SMART data. This is like a black-box in an aeroplane, it will tell
> you exactly what happened during the errors.
>
> If it says OK then you know that the case/interface was broken and you have
> a spare internal disk for future use. If the drive was broken, you will know
> for sure.
>
> Sadly there is *no* way to retrieve SMART through either USB or FW.
>

--
iMac (27", 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) � OS X (10.6.3)

From: Nick Naym on 26 Jul 2010 11:48
In article C87376F8.A25BF%noreply(a)nospam.invalid, MartinC at
noreply(a)nospam.invalid wrote on 7/26/10 11:31 AM:

> Nick Naym wrote:
>
>> The "Erase" tab for the _device_ or for the _volume_?
>
> If you're doing it just for security reasons, then the volume with the
> critical data will be sufficient.
>
> If you want to force-check/reallocate all blocks then better use the device.
>
> If the device only has one volume then it is almost the same, but volume
> would not zero the small number of blocks for the partition map.
>
> Since this *may* be the location of a bad block (if you didn't do the
> hours-for-hours format yet then forget my remark about "disproving" the
> theory... it is still possible now) you must zero the *entire* device.
>



Well, I've done it both ways several times before, and after each time, I'd
subsequently run into the same problem: Won't mount (or dismount, if it did
mount); won't allow me to reinitialize/reformat/erase.

I'm now doing it once again: I selected the device, then the Erase tab, then
the Zero Out Data Security Option, and DU is now running (I must've gotten
lucky: it didn't balk, and I didn't get an error message!). DU is now
telling me "Writing zeros to disk. Estimated time: 3 hours."


(PS: What is your native language?)


--
iMac (27", 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) � OS X (10.6.3)

From: Nick Naym on 26 Jul 2010 11:58
In article 1jm9n8z.1qq7yjj1kqt3e4N%dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz, David Empson at
dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz wrote on 7/26/10 10:27 AM:

> Nick Naym <nicknaym@_remove_this_gmail.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> I can "zero out" the _drive_ two ways: via DU's Erase tab, or via DU's
>> Partition tab; and I can "zero out" the _volume_ one way: via DU's Erase
>> tab.
>>
>> I don't know which of these 3 ways is preferred because I don't know what
>> the differences are.
>
> Quite simple:
>
> If you use "zero out data", then Erase Drive or Partition Drive will
> overwrite everything that was previously on the drive. Every sector of
> the drive is overwritten with zeros.

I see.



> In comparison, Erase Volume will only overwrite the content area of one
> partition on the drive.


I've only ever had a single partition on that drive.



> The partition map, other partitions, and any
> sectors outside of partitions such as free space are NOT overwritten, so
> there is a possibility they might contain residual data.
>

"Residual data?" Since I've never had more than one partition, what kind of
data outside of that partition might there be?


>
> As far as Erase and Partition of the Drive are concerned:
>
> "Erase" of the drive is identical to using the Partition tab, selecting
> a volume scheme of "1 partition", and NOT clicking the Options button
> (i.e. keep the same partition map scheme).
>
> The Partition tab gives you more options, particularly setting up
> multiple partitions, changing the size of the partitions, and changing
> the partition map scheme.
>
> Using the Partition tab with "Current" selected as the Volume Scheme is
> a more complex beast. Under Leopard and later, this can be used to
> adjust existing partitions. Partitions can be added and deleted without
> affecting the content of other partitions, and some resizing of
> partitions is possible.

--
iMac (27", 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) � OS X (10.6.3)

From: Paul Sture on 26 Jul 2010 12:36
In article <michelle-0A2489.07381826072010(a)news.eternal-september.org>,
Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> wrote:

> In article <1jm9n8z.1qq7yjj1kqt3e4N%dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz>,
> dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:
>
> > If you use "zero out data", then Erase Drive or Partition Drive will
> > overwrite everything that was previously on the drive. Every sector of
> > the drive is overwritten with zeros.
>
> Obligatory question: Hex zeroes or binary zeroes?

In days gone by, it was usually octal zeroes.

--
Paul Sture
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